I used the manual at first. I wrote down some of the program examples and tried to figure out what the commands did (it wasn't to hard, considering it was BASIC). I remember it took me a while to figure out what the FOR loop did, because my TI-89 was my first introduction to programming.

Then I found this site, and I greatly increased my programming experience by downloading programs that looked simple and looking at the code. Hehe--I remember downloading a program that used the getKey() command to detect kepresses....I kept on wondering how they did that =).

After I got the gist of BASIC, I tried to learn some nifty tricks (like the ok variable with dialog boxes and the fact that the "input" command, when used without any arguments, would do the cursor thingy on the graph screen). A good place to learn basic BASIC (tehe) and advanced BASIC (SiCoDe, right?) is to start at the Misc Information Files.

My Brother can kind of relate to that

This is a perfect example if how incorrect capitalization can render a phrase confusing. Brother is a large company that makes printers, so (not kidding) I first thought you were talking about your printer, similar to: "My Canon can kind of relate to that."

I'm just nitpicking, not being serious. (Except for what I first thought when I read the word "Brother". That's that unstable combination of nerdery, grammar obsessiveness, linguistics, and chemistry coming out.)

Lol, I can see that happening. I happen to own a Brother printer.

Perhaps Earl is not a native English speaker. In other languages, for example German, every noun is capitalized.

Nope...
Home country == US.
Probably not a native German speaker.

I learned BASIC from the manual, and then learned assembly a month or two later from Ciarin McCreesh's (probably not spelled right...) tutorial for the 86.

Oh yeah, and some QBASIC from my grandfather when I was 5 or 6, and later VB from a tutorial. Then some PIC asm (self-taught), and a little C++ and Java from some books...

Grandfather?! I'm getting older than I thought! :-o

Not to mention a little HTML and bits of other random scripting languages...

I learned 10 computer languages (including 3 calc languages) by my self. Teachers are scarce in my area.

I know what ya mean. I know about 7 compupter programming languages and BASIC/ASM for most calcs. I went to a "Programming Class" last summer... I learned absolutely NOTHING. And it was even supposed to be advanced... seeing that I'm only 13.

I'm self taught. Some of that does come from web sites and some does come from the manual so i could have picked "all of the above ways", but mostly I was self taught so I went with that one.

I learned from www.bgo.netfirms.com.
Those are probably the best 83 basic tutorials ever written.

I use books for everything else.
Python, HTML, JavaScript, ect.

Whoever Made Up the survey has some great survey Ideas

I learned BASIC from a combination of a couple of examples from my math book, and the rest was self-taught. I will say that reading the 1337 Guide to BASIC programming improved my programming significantly, although I was competent before reading it. I am learning assembly now from learn assembly in 28 days. I read a few guides to learn C++ and C#. I learned some php from a friend. I am also learning flash using the guides that come with it.

I'm *cough* the author *cough* of the 1337 guide. I guess I was mostly self-taught, but I occasionally referenced the manual.

Yes John! we all know youre the author. Good job on that. It is really helpfull. I believe I wrote you a review.

To all looking to become more experienced at basic check the 1337 guide to basic programming out, it has some little known tips in it.

About your guide. You could do the getkey function more efficiently if you did...
0->A
While not(A
getkey=45->A
End

Other than that it is very usefull, except only the big text on graph screen and Pt-on(#,#,2/3 were new ideas for me. (And I didn't know the calc had a xor feature, but I knew what it did).

Even more efficient:

Repeat Ans=45
getKey
End