Ok, now this is going to be fun. Matt Berseth tagged me in Michael Eaton's software development meme that goes around for a while.

So, let go..

How old were you when you started programming?

I was thirteen.

How did you get started in programming?

My father bought a computer in 1987 because he was in programming fore some time. It was a PC 286 with the speed of 16 Mhz, 515 KB (yes, kilobytes) of RAM and 14" abmer (some kind of yellow) CRT monitor.

I was looking as my father developing some "serious" applications and that was so much interesting to me that I couldn't resist to try. And here I am.

What was your first language?

It was Clipper Summer '87 with the dBase III+ database. It was fun to read about it on Wikipedia. Ahh.. sweet times..

What was the first real program you wrote?

It was some kind of a personal manager that consisted of address book, text processor, calendar, organizer and other things... It ran under DOS and had a sophisticated user interface for that time. I was doing it together with my cousin. We even managed to sell it and install it in several companies ;)

What languages have you used since?

Like I mentioned, Clipper Summer '87, Clipper 5.x, Turbo Pascal, Delphi, QBasic, Visual Basic 6, VB.NET, C#.

What was your first professional programming gig?

I could say that my first professional (and paying) gig was some administration application that my cousin and I developed. As I remember it had something to do with publications. It was so long ago that I can't even remember how much we got for it ;)

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?

Honestly, I am not sure. Part of me loves software development but, like Matt said, doing it for money is just not that fun. Since I paint whole my life, maybe I would became a painter. But, I would do it for money again, it wouldn't be fun anymore. By designing and blogging I somehow managed to get art and development together.

So... I'm not complaining :)

What is the one thing you would tell new developers?

Hmmmm.. Actually there are two things.

First, be a good teammate. It's maybe obvious but somehow there is a lack of understanding what that really is.

And second, you don't have to know everything and you can't know everything. Some of the best developers I ever worked with (and still working) often read articles, Google things and learn each day. So, relax.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?

When I started to freelance, when started to developing web applications and of course, when I started blogging!

And that's it

Yep, that's a brief summary of my beginning. I just realized that it was more than twenty years ago and it was sweet to remember those days. Thanks for tagging me, Matt!

For the end, I am tagging Mads Kristensen and Muhammad Mosa.