Would it be too late for me to get back into programming?

CodeBlox

I used to enjoy programming but I found the hobby slowly slipping away due to my attention being directed towards getting certs and getting a job in IT. It was a hobby I had and I haven't really done any programming in about a year O_O I started programming when I was like 17. I'm not some programming god like some who started when they were 11 years old. Currently I'm 22. Is it too late to get back into programming? This may be a silly question but I sometimes get discouraged when I hear someone go, "I've been programming since I was 9". I really think I would enjoy it as a hobby more than if it were something I did as a career.

FrankTh

Hi CodeBlox.

It is never too late to learn. And it is even better it you take it as a hobby.
For what I have seen,some peoples in the 50s can learn C++ for fun in about 3 months.
At 22 and taking it as a hobby, I would say go for it (any programming language).
The most common obstacle, in my humble opinion , is when we compare to others.

A quick glance at the certs you have and age...I have no doubts. you will succeed.

Frankth

NetworkingStudent

FrankTh wrote: »

Hi CodeBlox.

It is never too late to learn. And it is even better it you take it as a hobby.
For what I have seen,some peoples in the 50s can learn C++ for fun in about 3 months.
At 22 and taking it as a hobby, I would say go for it (any programming language).
The most common obstacle, in my humble opinion , is when we compare to others.

A quick glance at the certs you have and age...I have no doubts. you will succeed.

Frankth

+1

It’s never to late
check out these sites

Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code

RubyMonk Teaches You the Ruby Programming Language with Interactive Exercises

Someone else posted this on te.. it’s lloks like a god site to learn some basic programming:
JavaRanch - A Friendly Place for Java Greenhorns
good luck hope this helps

Slowhand

Getting back into the swing of programming isn't all that difficult, the only thing that'll stand in your way of both enjoying it and getting good at it is the belief that someone else is better so you shouldn't even try. At 29, I'm back in school to pursue a degree in electrical engineering & computer science. Believe me, it's not fun to feel like my classmates, many of whom are more than ten years younger than me, are running circles around me and know everything already. Still, if I let it get to me then I'll never move ahead and I'll never get the chance to show those little twerps how it's done when things begin to get so difficult they can no longer rest of their laurels. (Heh, heh. )

Start out by picking up what you used to study, particularly if you can find resources on the language(s) you already know. The ones NetworkingStudent recommended look to be pretty good, and you can always find plenty of help on Microsoft's various developer networks. One thing I can strongly recommend though, especially if you're thinking about wanting to get into coding as a profession, is to get some formal education at some point. Most universities and community colleges start you off with an intro to programming class and then move you up through data structures & algorithms before having you tackle things like operating system design or things of that caliber. If you don't plan on taking a compsci degree, at least take data structures & algorithms, (and it's pre-requisites, of course,) so you can get the foundations of what would be considered professional-level coding.

powerfool

Definitely not.

I started off in IT doing web development and Java programming back in the late 90s. I quickly migrated over to networking and systems. Just a couple of years ago, I was offered a .Net programming position that I tried out. I was offered the position by a former coworker that knew my capabilities (as I do write my own networking/systems tools).

So, get yourself back up to speed... maybe even pursue a certification or two in programming. You can do it.

Webmaster

CodeBlox wrote: »

This may be a silly question but I sometimes get discouraged when I hear someone go, "I've been programming since I was 9".

I wrote some code around that age (desperate for playing games on an Atari I typed pages of code from a book) but I don't think I really benefit from that in 2011. Wrote some pascal code when I was almost twice that age, but I don't think that gave me anymore than a day head start either. So don't let comments like that discourage you. I'm just speaking from my own personal experience but I think it is never too late to "get back into" or just start fresh with programming. Certainly not at 22.

CodeBlox wrote: »

I really think I would enjoy it as a hobby more than if it were something I did as a career.

That's what it pretty much is for me. At the same time I developed some skills that I can actually place on my resume if I needed/wanted to. But if you want to do it as a hobby I can highly recommend developing for your phone (or tablet). That is write Java code for Android or Objective-C for iOS if you have an iPhone+Mac. I had lots of fun with the Visual Basic Express editions years ago but programming for a phone is even more fun imo.

Although I think taking classes at colleges/universities and reading tutorials etc online is great advice, nothing beats actually writing code regularly. Plenty of tutorials and sample projects on the web that can help you get started with writing a real application right away.

When it comes to learning something new (technology-related) I think a certification can be a good guideline even if you don't go for the exam for developing for Windows, the Microsoft developer exams (and books) go way beyond "hobby" and would present a beginner with an overwhelming amount of info.

CodeBlox

Great advice. I was into programming for both windows and linux environments. In the linux environment it was mostly network related programming. I had started to learn how to use the SDL libraries to create games and wanted to get back with that. I at one point uninstalled my linux distro (ubuntu) due to wanting to install MS Server 2k8. This morning, as an attempt to get back into my programming, I visit the website of what I THOUGHT was a pretty reliable distro (ubuntu). Bear in mind that I had NOT kept up with this flavor of linux and was unaware of the new addition of "unity". So I get it installed expecting the usual desktop and UI. WRONG! It was nothing but problems for me... This version of the OS seemed inefficient and would lock up. My mouse keeps freezing randomly and I hate the way that task tray is mounted to the left O_O In my frustration I tried to uninstall it(unity, not ubuntu) but for some reason was unsuccessful. This was a disaster and now I'm going to need to look for a new distro or downgrade to a previous version. I liked the old gnome ui... That was just wayyy too much of a change and it was a challenge to find anything useful like the terminal. Its as if they dumbed the whole system down haha. For windows, I had started GUI programming and was just getting familiar with the API. I have all of the basic programming "stuff" down. I had even started one large project that I never finished. I was writing an emulator for the 6502 microprocessor (CPU for the NES). I finished the machine language level stuff but never got to writing the assembler. Pretty damn cool project but I no longer have the source code that I had written for it. It wasn't something easy for me, I had been doing tons of research as I went along clarifying things.

EDIT: I've been doing further googling and it seems other distro like fedora have something similar. Seems like this is actually "GNOME 3"

EDIT #2: Looks like the problem was taken care of in 11.10 with a "sudo apt-get install gnome-panel"... So it looks like I can get back to programming

RobertKaucher

CodeBlox wrote: »

but I sometimes get discouraged when I hear someone go, "I've been programming since I was 9".

Well, someone developing decades of bad habits with little professional guidance discourages you?

Everyone

I guess technically I've been "programming" off and on since I was 8. I never really enjoyed it, or at least never had a desire to do it professionally, although I suppose it has helped me with my "scripting" which I do enjoy. It's a good skill to have, even if you never write your own program from scratch. It can help you troubleshoot just a little further than someone with 0 programming knowledge, or tweak/customize something you use that someone else created to better suite your own needs.