Pete Brown called me out to answer the next round of "what about you" questionnaires floating around the blog-o-sphere. So here's my take:
How old were you when you first started programming?
I got a Vic-20 when I was ten and started pretty quickly into Commodore Basic. I voraciously read Compute magazine and can remember reading the programs in the back and hoping those data sections were typed right.
How did you get started in programming?
I would visit other geek friends and discuss Basic with them pretty freely through high-school. I remember programming a lot of 6510 machine language stuff (Poke and Peek in Commodore basic, one byte at a time). I tried it on the Apple ]['s at school too. It wasn't until I was sixteen that I got serious about how it really worked when I got a summer job learning and programming.
That first summer I was introduced to a CP/M variant called TurboDOS (a multi-user CP/M believe it or not) that ran on Wyse green screen terminals. I had to learn what a database was ("Why wouldn't you just have the data in a data block or something? Oh, its going to change over time...I get it...") Once the school year started, I became disinterested in school and did the job Co-op (working 1/2 days for credit and going to school 1/2 days). Soon after I just quit high school to program full-time. By the end of that year, I had written my first business package, a time billing system for a real estate appraiser.
What was your first language?
Commodore Basic was the first, but assembly for the Vic-20 and C64 were soon behind. Once I was being paid to do it, I cut my teeth on non-mainstream languages like FMS-80 (sorta like Pascal), dBase II, III, III+, 4 and on to Clipper eventually.
What was the first real program you wrote?
I don't remember the first program I wrote of any consequence. The first one I can remember was the time billing system for the Real Estate appraiser. It was all green screen magic. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of UI design for green screen terminals..
What languages have you used since you started programming?
From what I can remember: Commodore Basic, 6510 Machine Language, QBasic, TurboPascal, FMS-80, dbase II (et al.), FoxPro, Clipper, Visual Objects, Delphi, Paradox, Visual Basic, C, C++, JavaScript and even VBScript.
I use C#, VB.NET and even C++ once in a while. I have been digging into IronRuby, IronPython, F# and Boo lately.
What was your first professional programming gig?
My first job wasn't that professional as I was paid minimum wage to mostly learn so I won't count that. Soon after I got a job creating a dBase II system to store a filing system for Chevron's environmental compliance area. This job involved creating a database that stored the data on every file in their file room, all reports for that system and a backup system for the data.
If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
Yes I would. Having started so young, I fought it somewhat but in my mid-twenties I finally figured out that this is what I love to do.
If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
Many people think of programming as a solitary job for loners. I am often asked if I find the solitude nice in the work. The reality is that this job is all about people, not lines of code. Learning how to communicate with your team members, your customers, your advocates is key to success. I would rather hire a good communicator than a good coder. You can teach code, you can't teach how to communicate your ideas.
In addition, I would encourage people to read code. Reading code is a lost art. Intellisense and debuggers has made most younger developers dependent on watching the code in action. I feel lucky that I didn't have a debugger for a long time. It taught me to read the code to understand it. If you read code, you're liable to write code that is easier to read. Find code that impresses you and emulate it (e.g. good strucutre, documentation, etc.).
What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?
I know I am going to leave someone out when I say this but without a doubt it was working at DevelopMentor as a developer. Chris Sells assemblies an incredible team that was spread out around the world with a vision to build a product called Gen<X>. Before I went there, I was always "the guy". In most offices I was the hotshot developer. Going to work with Chris meant that I was never the smartest guy in the room. While this was hard on my ego, it certainly helped me understand how to listen to other ideas and stand up for my own. Even though it was not a commercial success, it was certainly critical to who I am today as a developer, writer and thinker.
So who's next?
I would nominate:
Arthur C. Clarke had an astounding impact on my life as a young boy. His magical mix of hard science and science fiction kept me rapt with wonder of the world. Rendezvous with Rama and Childhood's End profoundly impacted my vision of what is possible.
Mr. Clarke was a real renaissance man as his contributions to science, literature and popular culture are hard to overestimate. His early science accomplishments helped usher in the age of satellites, especially in the science of geostationary orbits that work as telecommunication relays. In fact, geostationary orbits are referred to as "Clarke" orbits.
He will be missed...
I was reading Clemens Vasters' blog this morning when I read about something called Blog Tag started by Jeff Pulver. The idea is to tell five things no one knows about you and tag five other people to do the same. No one has tagged me, but I'll start it up here with some of my favorite bloggers:
- I started programming professionally when I was in High School using FMS-80 (A multi-user database) on TurboDOS systems (a CP/M derivative). First program: A Time Billing System.
- I gave up programming for two years in my early twenties to become a vagabond. I travelled around Europe playing music on the street. Biggest lesson learned: take more than $80 and a return flight if you want to succeed.
- My favorite quote is by Arthur C. Clarke: "Once is an accident; twice a coincidence; three times...a conspiracy."
- I attended a WinDev talk with the DevelopMentor trio of Don Box, Chris Sells and Tim Ewald and came home telling my girlfriend that "I am going to write articles and books so I can teach at conferences". One year later my first article was published by MSJ (now MSDN).
- My first name is not irish at all. I was named after the Native American Tribe of Shawnee. My middle name is Twain (yes, after Mark). And I go by "Shawn Twain" when I play music.
There are my five things, I now want to see Chris Sells, Matt Ranlett, Brendon Schwartz, Tim Ewald and Ted Neward to do it.
I headed out from Atlanta to Redmond yesterday. I've made this trip enough times that I thought I knew what to expect. I didn't expect a snowstorm.
I arrived at SEA-TAC at 10:30pm expecting to grab a car and do the quick drive to Redmond. The snow kept the airport luggage handlers from getting the luggage from the plane for 45 minutes. Then the nasty job of getting to the rental agency. Their shuttle was hampered by the ice on the roads. But at midnight I had a car, my luggage and some hope to get to my hotel before too long...
Then I found the real problem. I got on the highway but it was very slow going (I could have walked faster), but it was moving. I assumed that it was because of an accident. When we finally got to the head of the line I found out the problem was a banked pavement covered in ice. Cars were being abandoned and SUV's were sliding sideways trying to get through.
I took my Boston training in hand and headed to the shoulder and kept my tires on the snow (snow has more traction than ice). Moving at 5 MPG I was able to get through the banked pavement and headed north. Almost three hours later I was at my hotel room.
I don't mind telling you that it did scare me. I had visions of sleeping in the rental car, spinning out or even running out of gas on the highway, but I got lucky and got through. My suggestion is that Seattle cancel any future snow. It shuts down the city (and the the MS campus) and is just plain annoying.
I have a problem. When I (or my customers) are being taken advantage of it makes me so very angry...probably angrier that it should. I am in Hartford, CT this week to teach a course for a corporate client. One of the recommended hotels is a Crown Plaza Hotel at $199/night. It was the cheapest of the three hotels they selected. While I find expensive hotel rooms ostentacious, usually I can figure out why they are so expensive: excelent service, nice rooms, etc. The room I am in right now is actually about 1/2 the size of the $75/night hotel I stayed in a couple of weeks ago. Not just the size, but its a bit shabby actually.
When I checked in I was shocked that they charged extra for Internet access in the rooms. Ok, $9.95 a night. Big whoop. I find it offensive to be nickle and dimed, but its their hotel. Fine. But then when it didn't work, they wanted me to call a 800 number to get it working. Final straw was when the guy on the phone (a 3rd party company I am sure) said he didn't have time to fix it and got me working but told me that tomorrow I'd have to call again to get it actually fixed.
Maybe I am from the wrong side of the tracks and I shouldn't be as offended by bad service, bad hotel room and lack of features for $199/night. Am I overreacting?
For those of you who do not know by much better half, Tricia is a sculptor that has just started doing shows and exhibitions. To go with that new step, we have created a new site to show off some of her pieces. Right now there are only a couple of her pieces there and a way to send her comments, but it should grow in the coming months. If you are interested in art, please visit her new site at http://www.sculpturesbytricia.com.
