well, basic on the ti-84+ SE was the first programming language i learned, and my manual never said how to program... So i guess i was self taught. now i am trying to understand asm even though i havent finished learning C or C++ so if you will excuse me i need to get some tylenol. oh and the books i got for learning C and C++ dont explain things too well and i was wondering if anyone had some good manuals or something that might help me. if you do send them to gll35dlx@msn.com. thanks

The first language I ever learned was METAL Basic for the Mac OS 9.2. I learned that from my brother Samuel and then used it's manuel to learn more involved commands. I then learned how to program in TI-Basic for the 83+ by myself. I learned how to program before I ever got my calculator, so I was constantly using my friends throughout geometry so I could program. I let him keep all the math programs I made, so he was happy. I have referred to the manual very seldom. Only when I needed to learn how the clock commands work on the 84+, and how to use the seq( and sum( commands worked. Currently I am in the process of learning z80 ASM from about 100 manuals at once. (I still don't get it). I want to undertake JAVA and HTML as soon as I get a chance.

I'd just like one paperback manual for z80 ASM and another for the TI-OS. But I doubt that TI would release complete info about the OS. =P
Local bookstores have nothing and they can't import anything seeing none of their suppliers have the books I'm after. "Death to pdf!"

A really good source (in my opinion) for learning HTML, JavaScript, and CSS is webmonkey (webmonkey.com). It's very user-friendly and has lots of examples.

I believe my first introduction to programming was with QBasic. I fooled around a little, but never really got the hang of it (this was 5-6 years ago). In any case, I seriously started programming when I borrowed an 83 from my school's math department for my Algrebra II/Trig class. I remember editing a program, and while looking at it, something clicked, and I realized it could be improved. Essentially, my first real programs were faster, more user-friendly versions of the programs my school gave out.

Since then, I've written much more extensive TI-BASIC programs and have branched out to ASM (slow-going!). I also have taught myself some Visual Basic and I would learn C, except my Unix shell won't run!

iI learned with help from a friend, a bit of self teaching, and a website. I can only make math formulas and menus in basic, nothing more though.

Learn to use GetKey (7 on the I/O menu). You can do all sorts of stuff with it, including slow but playable games. You can also make better menus with it.

Note the (at_this_time) 3 votes for "from a friend"...

Just thought I'd point that Programmers are really quite unique, since none of their friends know how to program...
-or the programmers have no friends...
-or I'm trying to make up something to post...

Anyway you look at it, we are a small community and most programmers are very self motivated. ( They kind of have to be, now that I think about it... how long does it take to learn the language, make a program, then actually upload it? I feel privlaged that I can control something in this chaotic world ! )

The strang thing with me is that my brother that is 1.5 yrs. older than me programs also. So we actually benefit of each other. When one of us finds a trick we share with each other and learn more. I voted for taught myself, because the majority of it was self taught and only the higher level programming was from my brother or glimpsing in a manual to figure out the right input values.

You are correct--most programmers don't personally know other programmers (programmers in their teens and early adulthood are pretty rare).

However, programmers usually have non-programmer friends (as opposed to no friends at all) because programming helps develop a good character. First off, programmers are usually the "gods" of math, history, and (to a lesser extent) language in school. This is because the art of programming develops the mathematical, spacial, cause/effect, verbal (esp. writing), and sometimes auditory centers of the brain. Programmers are also, as you said, self-motivated and hard-working in many aspects of their life because the art of programming makes them patient and innovative. These characteristics usually show in a programmer's personality, making them charismatic enough to attract a large following.

I agree about the math part, since I won the Arizona State Math Contest 4 years in a row (in different divisions, of course), but I am not so sure about verbal. I have always see my programs as mathematical formulas, not text in some language, & as for self-motivated, I only finish what has to be done usually. I rarely finish programs I start writing because I get distracted by something else (usually another program, or games). I suppose, though, in the area of language that while not doing the best at English (my native language) I did better than other students in my Spanish class, so maybe that was just caused by my dislike for English (other than pre-1200's Old English).

Math, yeah, but I personally hate history and English. Also, I don't really "attract a large following" - I find that too much time in front of the computer makes me more antisocial. ;-)

I pretty much learned from the manuals. They must have printed them for some reason, right? :-)

But for some reason, I'm addicted to reading manuals...

I think we should burn all the awful manuals that were written.

I agree. Just not the non-awful ones. :)

Like the ones that were translated horribly from some other language and make no sense at all.

Yeah, those manuals are probably even more annoying than, say, a badly-written ticalc.org review.

I thought the TI calculator manuals are pretty good, though.

I have a feeling I shouldn't have used a hyphen there. For that matter, perhaps I should have said "poorly" and not "badly."

Ah, you mean the ones like this:

"hey d00dz ths prog r0x my b0x0rz cuz it lliek r sooooooo 1337 wtf?! lol!!!!11!!!1!11111111 no wait it sux11!11!!!!! serousiley"

(never mind, I haven't seen any that bad yet, thanks to Jon)
or this:

"I really liked this game. Download it."