Does anyone else like cringing at their first programs?

A long long time ago, I was doing stupid things with Windows Batch on XP, and I kept getting amazed at how terrible I thought these things weren't. So I thought to myself…

…"Does anybody else actually like looking at their first programs and cringing at how bad they were?"

I'm cringing looking at the Bedrock code, and that's only a year old…

I actually remember quite clearly the very first program I ever made. I started learning to code by just messing around with Visual Basic, rather than with scripting. The first day when I was messing around in the interface editor I noticed there was a web view control and I decided to make a web browser.

I actually burnt it to a CD and I still have it, so just earlier I decided to give it a shot for the first time in seven years. Unfortunately though, as I stuck a paper label on to the disk it doesn't like spinning around in laptop CD drives and I almost broke my dad's Mac when I tried… sooo I can't really read the disc. One day I'll hopefully find a desktop PC with a disc drive, but until then, have a look at the packaging I made for it.

Office 2007 word art is very classy. Very.





At the time my friends and I ran a 'company' called Satstem, derived from SATA (as in the hard drive cable, don't ask) and 'system'. There was an 'office' in Wellington where I lived and an 'office' in Auckland where my cousin lived. It's so cringe worthy but also kinda cool thinking back.

You could say Satstem was really hitting the big time when we launched a takeover bid on our rival, TechProXi, which just happened also run by friends at school.

The most cringe worthy bit is definitely our website, which is, once again, very high class and uses the same Wordpress template as 90% of sites. The domain even beat out the site's content in pure class, with a good ol' .tk domain name. The Capitalising Of Every Single Damn Word Is Also Not At All Cringe Worthy.



But hey, I was like 11 or 12, we all make mistakes. I have to say though, I'm kinda surprised how that first program isn't as absolutely terrible as I thought (although I haven't used it yet :P/>).

My first program was written between 2010 and 2012. I just felt like learning C++ and followed a tutorial. I think they made me code a calculator, even if I only copied the code from the website, ran and felt great.

Now about Lua: My first Lua program must have been written about two years ago. It was probably some MEGA secure door lock. The first program I published on the forums (in ask a pro) was a menu with arrow handling and touch detection. It was on the 22/01/2015, and I think Yami helped me.

Beats me what my first program would've looked like (my age hadn't hit double digits), but I do remember the first time I saw the coding process in action. Me dad found an icon for BASIC2 in GEM, opened it up, and started typing:

PRINT "something or other"

So I immediately hit the power button on the attached printer, in preparation.

While not my first program, this is the first one I did as a side project (and not something for school). I think that I was (about) 16 at the time.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pascalchess/

I think my first CC program was a remote control turtle. I got it to a point where I could press a button to not only move it or turn it, but to perform a specific action like tunnel 3x3 forwards, tilted up, or tilted down. At that point, I was befuddled by this newfangled fs api.

This should be a forum game!

when i made my first website, plain html, nothing fancy at all, i decided to show it to people in my class. didn't end well.
so many people started to hate me from it, that's the last time i show them something i've made :P/>
[right]oh the agony.[/right]
one of my friends loved it though, and was supporting me heaps for it :)/>
don't tell him i said this, but he isn't really like anyone you'd normally see around, and he acts a little different than normal.
anyway, he was trying to show everyone and tell everyone to respect me for it, and i did get a couple of wins asking anyone if they could do better xD. the best response was "easy. just search up 'website maker' and make one then." since that, every time someone mentions anything about website makers, i simply just put my hand in their face and say "eww" :P/>

though looking at it now, i find it strange how i actually got excited to make a website say "hello"

eventually i got into computercraft, which really is some months ago. that was the best part of being a programmer, trying new things :)/>
i've done a lot of tests with computercraft which have been fun, and i've got a lot better with everything i try. since my first post i've learned a lot more, pretty much nailed it apart from the complex bits like generation using math, cuz i'm in year 5 :P/>
coroutines are one of the only things that i haven't learned that i want to get into doing. and i'm still learning more about computercraft :)/>

sorry, kinda got offtopic a bit :P/>
or a lot :P/>
i've got a lot to say that i've never really told anyone. nobody really cares, i'm the only programmer in my whole school xD

That school. If you search, I guarantee you'll find someone who can code.

Wait_, on 17 November 2015 - 09:35 AM said:

nobody really cares, i'm the only programmer in my whole school xD

Actually out of curiosity, as you're also from Adelaide, what school do you go to? It'd be a funny coincidence if we went to the same school :P/>

oeed, on 17 November 2015 - 10:07 AM said:

Wait_, on 17 November 2015 - 09:35 AM said:

nobody really cares, i'm the only programmer in my whole school xD

Actually out of curiosity, as you're also from Adelaide, what school do you go to? It'd be a funny coincidence if we went to the same school :P/>

well, it is a private school so i'm not sure if i should mention it in the forums or just in a PM

Creator, on 17 November 2015 - 10:03 AM said:

That school. If you search, I guarantee you'll find someone who can code.

nah, only 200 people. reception to year 7, and nobody in year 5-7 that i know can do any programming languages.
i doubt anyone under year 5 would be able to program anything :P/>

Wait_, on 17 November 2015 - 10:10 AM said:

oeed, on 17 November 2015 - 10:07 AM said:

Wait_, on 17 November 2015 - 09:35 AM said:

nobody really cares, i'm the only programmer in my whole school xD

Actually out of curiosity, as you're also from Adelaide, what school do you go to? It'd be a funny coincidence if we went to the same school :P/>

well, it is a private school so i'm not sure if i should mention it in the forums or just in a PM

Fair enough ;)/>

Year 5-7? Adelaide? Where is that?

Ontopic
First CC programs: when I look at them I exit notepad++.
First programs before CC: visual studio constructions without real coding. Full of buttons and other objects doing nothing. Made for occupying disk space.
First non CC programs that do something:
Roll a ball like game in Unity3D

Konlab, on 17 November 2015 - 12:26 PM said:

Year 5-7? Adelaide? Where is that?

Adelaide is in South Australia, and year 5-7 meaning grades 5-7

Wait_, on 22 November 2015 - 07:48 AM said:

Konlab, on 17 November 2015 - 12:26 PM said:

Year 5-7? Adelaide? Where is that?

Adelaide is in South Australia, and year 5-7 meaning grades 5-7

Thanks! I'm not good at geography of Australia and Oceania and America.

Back to being on topic:

I do cringe looking at my first programs in Windows Batch. A few of them are on my website. I started programming in 7th grade, and was the only programmer in my school other than one of my teachers. It didn't take me long to stop cringing though. Later, I made a game called MineBatch (yeah, it's obvious what it is). I'm pretty proud of that one, despite its rampant bugs.

In ComputerCraft's Lua: I first started using ComputerCraft when Minecraft 1.3 was released. I made some pretty bad programs, and a terrible "operating system" that served no real purpose at all, other than a project for me to learn on. Now, I stick to making regular standalone programs and games.

My first "game" was that I posted and made MYSELF was: Cubasity
And was made in GameMaker:Studio

This is definitely the worst program I've ever made,it allowed you to add apps to your desktop(a bit like Glass UI). I don't know why I was so bad at coding at Lua back then,maybe it was because I was writing the code in my slow,laggy Minecraft. I've been learning so much about Lua that even Glass UI 1.3 is making me cringe. I did make an awful mario game using Scratch,but it managed to impress most people at my school.

Sometimes it's good to take a look at my old programs.I can see how much have I progressed since then.
When I started programming (with Lua), I wasn't so good in English (as you may have noticed, my native language is not English), so it was hard to learn new things.

In my first codes I didn't even know about functions, so there were a lot of code repetitions. I didn't hear of OOP, but I knew some good practices.

My first "big" program was made after a month, a Street fighter like game, but in ComputerCraft. It was 1,000 lines long. I started to use functions in that and there was a game loop, event handling, multiplayer and saving. I remember how proud I was to myself. :)/>

My first program was in Lua, however not in CC. It was a 1 dimensional constant acceleration physics problem solver. Input given, get output. Very simple. Basically 90% of it was if statements. I didn't know about elseif at the time, which is probably the most cringeworthy part of the program. The second most thing was that one section of algebra in it was incorrect, so it would either crash, or give me a wrong answer. I have yet to work in CC, but I am very interested in it.

My first program was built in VB2008.. it was what I called "Windows XP Mini". It basically was a """VOS""" should I call it. All it did was had a startmenu, a Windows XP like interface, and craptastic art made by me. I was trying to find it (from my old websites in 2008), but I couldn't, I was like, 7 or 8 at the time. :\

descentguy195, on 06 December 2015 - 04:09 AM said:

My first program was built in VB2008.. it was what I called "Windows XP Mini". It basically was a """VOS""" should I call it. All it did was had a startmenu, a Windows XP like interface, and craptastic art made by me. I was trying to find it (from my old websites in 2008), but I couldn't, I was like, 7 or 8 at the time. :\

You coded at seven? Nice, seriously. So wasnyoyr thing like a crappy XP VM?

Creator, on 06 December 2015 - 07:51 AM said:

descentguy195, on 06 December 2015 - 04:09 AM said:

My first program was built in VB2008.. it was what I called "Windows XP Mini". It basically was a """VOS""" should I call it. All it did was had a startmenu, a Windows XP like interface, and craptastic art made by me. I was trying to find it (from my old websites in 2008), but I couldn't, I was like, 7 or 8 at the time. :\

You coded at seven? Nice, seriously. So wasnyoyr thing like a crappy XP VM?

Yeah, it was almost like a Windows XP VM, but much more craptastic. I actually made all the backgrounds and buttons in Paint/Paint.NET.. it was good times. Except it makes me cringe. But hey, for a 7 year old, that kind of programming wasn't bad. :P/>

descentguy195, on 06 December 2015 - 04:21 PM said:

Creator, on 06 December 2015 - 07:51 AM said:

descentguy195, on 06 December 2015 - 04:09 AM said:

My first program was built in VB2008.. it was what I called "Windows XP Mini". It basically was a """VOS""" should I call it. All it did was had a startmenu, a Windows XP like interface, and craptastic art made by me. I was trying to find it (from my old websites in 2008), but I couldn't, I was like, 7 or 8 at the time. :\

You coded at seven? Nice, seriously. So wasnyoyr thing like a crappy XP VM?

Yeah, it was almost like a Windows XP VM, but much more craptastic. I actually made all the backgrounds and buttons in Paint/Paint.NET.. it was good times. Except it makes me cringe. But hey, for a 7 year old, that kind of programming wasn't bad. :P/>

At seven I played with legos.

Creator, on 06 December 2015 - 06:48 PM said:

descentguy195, on 06 December 2015 - 04:21 PM said:

Creator, on 06 December 2015 - 07:51 AM said:

descentguy195, on 06 December 2015 - 04:09 AM said:

My first program was built in VB2008.. it was what I called "Windows XP Mini". It basically was a """VOS""" should I call it. All it did was had a startmenu, a Windows XP like interface, and craptastic art made by me. I was trying to find it (from my old websites in 2008), but I couldn't, I was like, 7 or 8 at the time. :\

You coded at seven? Nice, seriously. So wasnyoyr thing like a crappy XP VM?

Yeah, it was almost like a Windows XP VM, but much more craptastic. I actually made all the backgrounds and buttons in Paint/Paint.NET.. it was good times. Except it makes me cringe. But hey, for a 7 year old, that kind of programming wasn't bad. :P/>

At seven I played with legos.

I played with Legos as well when I was 7, and played Halo 2 on my old Xbox Original, but sometimes I'd get so bored I'd go on VB and make stupid programs. Lol.

Hey Lyqyd, could you move this to Forum Games?

It doesn't belong there, since it's not a game.

My first program (which was with lua at like 8 years old) was a program that dropped your health in a game very rapidly. The only problem was I was setting health, not decreasing it. To help you understand, I did this.

health = 100
wait(0.1)
health = 99
wait(0.1)
health = 98
wait(0.1)

I used copy and paste but hand coded all 100 of those numbers.


My first program with CC was a program that copied files. Once I posted it on the forums, someone let me know that there was a built in copy program Xl

A program that was cringe worthy? Well, my first few ones had random arbitrary variable names like Hell, spock, jim, and bob. Yeah I really don't ever want to touch those programs again. Mind you the first programs I ever coded in any language was CC programs… Please don't go looking for them, they were crap.

The oldest program I can actually find was this:

while  true do
 local event = os.pullEvent("redstone")
 local greenState = rs.testBundledInput("left", colors.green)
 if greenState == true then
  redstone.setOutput("right", true)
  sleep(2)
  redstone.setOutput("right", false)
  redstone.setOutput("back", true)
  sleep(1)
  redstone.setOutput("back", false)
  os.shutdown
 else
  print("Please try again later")
  os.shutdown
 end
end

…which has a number of problems with it. It's not even as bad as my first program, in which I typed an end at the end of the file. Because I had to specify the end of the program. I wanted to find the AAP post about that, but the forum only goes back so far…

KingofGamesYami, on 27 December 2015 - 03:33 AM said:

…which has a number of problems with it. It's not even as bad as my first program, in which I typed an end at the end of the file. Because I had to specify the end of the program. I wanted to find the AAP post about that, but the forum only goes back so far…

Correction, the forums search only goes back a year. The posts still exist, just harder to find.

Dragon53535, on 27 December 2015 - 11:10 PM said:

Correction, the forums search only goes back a year. The posts still exist, just harder to find.

Tried a google search, which didn't work. If you know how to dig something from 2012 / 2013 please help me :)/>

You were probably looking for this.

Lyqyd, on 27 December 2015 - 11:48 PM said:

You were probably looking for this.

I think he was looking for a different AaP topic. Something to do with Eof probably.