The Video Game Critic

Old-fart time...

The first computer I got to mess with was a TRS-80 model 2 or 3 in about 1981. Shortly after, we bought a Timex-Sinclair 1000 (2K baby!) and my journey into programming had begun. A few years later, and I moved on to an Atari 800XL, and my destiny (for the next 25 years or so) was determined.

Now, the question...

Do any of you younger folks program? Anything? Is there curriculum in schools that teaches actual programming? Not just HTML, but some sort of structured, compiled or object-oriented language?

I can see your fart is as old as mine.

I began on an Apple IIe in school (I think that was a common experience), learning BASIC programming and using my new found powers to do ASCII art of a giant bunny rabbit. I read Radio Shack TRS focused comics, and learning to program was thought to be way more useful than archaic skill like typing. Back then though if you had a problem, you created code to solve it, instead of downloading an app. If you needed a giant ASCII Pink Panther, I was your huckleberry.

Hooked on the rush, I became enthralled by a Commodore 64 and typed in code from books and read magazines that helped you program, Journeyed from BASIC to Fortran 77 to C and beyond.


Do they teach programming middle or high school anymore? Is there a point to it anymore? Lets read some opinions.

College level, yeah, but nothing at the high school level. I've fiddled with Gmod Lua in the past and I'm currently trying to learn C++.

I took a C++ programming class back in high school, umpteen years ago. Our final project was to make a game using C++ ... I flaked out big time and wrote a "High or Low" game in five minutes.

Also, in elementary school, we had LOGO on the Apple II. Not sure if that's programming.

I'm a professional programmer. Mostly web pages using asp.net (html, visual basic, javascript and jquery). Some java

In college I took Pascal, Visual Basic, and COBOL.  Yep, I'm old.

Most recently, I started playing around with Unity3D and writing simple C# scripts for object interactions.  
I took a vacation early this month and instead of thinking about work, I spent a majority of the time brainstorming ways to make a simple, fun tank game for 8 players on the same screen.  The idea spawned from the 8 player Bomberman discussion we had a while back.

The night we got back from our vacation I built a simple website to document my progress.  I figure it's going to take me about a year and a half to two years based on initial scope.

http://greateightadventures.com

Sure, it's a self-plug but fits the topic.  

I took the very, very basic programming class in college (the one where you use notepad... I don't even remember what it was called) and I absolutely hated it. I thought it would be something that I would enjoy but learned very quickly how irritating it could be. I'm glad I got through that class but I'm not touching that stuff again...

I program my DVR to record on a regular basis; does that count?

[QUOTE=snakeboy]I program my DVR to record on a regular basis; does that count?[/QUOTE]

I don't have a DVR, do they have FOR/NEXT loops or IF/THEN/ELSE conditional statements?

[QUOTE=ZetaX][QUOTE=snakeboy]I program my DVR to record on a regular basis; does that count?[/QUOTE]

I don't have a DVR, do they have FOR/NEXT loops or IF/THEN/ELSE conditional statements?


[/QUOTE]

No, but they are a lot more complicated to use than you'd think (not really).