How did I get started in software development?

July 8, 2008 by ryan

Justin Etheredge recently tagged me to write up how I got started in software development (you are probably familiar with the meme started by Michael Eaton). Without any further explanation, here goes:

How old were you when you first started programming?

I first started programming when I was 10 or 11 (I don't remember exactly).

How did you get started in programming?

My interest in programming initially began as a general interest in computer games. My dad showed me how to get around in DOS and pulled up some games in QBasic. It wasn't long after that I started messing with the code to see what would happen if I changed things. From there, I tried writing some stuff on my own spending a lot of time in the syntax help. 

What was your first language?

BASIC

What was the first real program you wrote?

Depending on the definition, the first real program I wrote was a game that worked in an AOL chat room. When I was 13, one of my friends showed me this thing called a scrambler. The scrambler would let you enter a word, send the scrambled word to the chat and keep score of who got the word right first, etc. I don't know why but I thought it would be an interesting thing to try and replicate. About a month later, I had finished writing one using the VB and the Windows API. It was not very useful but I learned a lot that way I guess.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

C#, VB.NET, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Perl, PHP, BASIC, C, C++, F# (and others)

What was your first professional programming gig?

When I was in Highschool/College I did some freelance websites/applications mainly for construction and contracting companies. After college my first full-time programming job was working at Franklin University on the development team (websites / web applications).

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

Absolutely.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

Be continuously learning.

What's the most fun you've ever had programming? 

I honestly couldn't tell you -- there are a lot of projects that have been really fun. I especially like when there's some new kind of challenge I haven't encountered before.

Who are you calling out? 

Matt Braun

Scott Sanzenbacher 

Rob Conery

Jurgen Appelo

Danny Douglass

Oren Eini

 

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Gravatar, please bring back PNG files!

April 10, 2008 by ryan
Gravatar recently made some big changes when migrating the site from Ruby on Rails to PHP. While most of these changes are a real benefit, there is one big feature that has been removed -- PNG files are no longer supported! Initially, I was sure it had to be a fluke -- why would someone want to remove PNG files for something like this? However, upon contacting support, my fears were confirmed (email pasted below):


First off I want to emphasize I really appreciate this service that Gravatar is providing; it has always worked well and come on, it's free! That being said, it is somewhat concerning that the support for PNG files has been dropped for legacy browsers.

While PNG files may not look pretty on IE6, its not an issue that will prevent IE6 (or other legacy browser) users from viewing the site. Moving web standards forward is important! As web developers, I believe its our responsibility to let the end-user know that their overall experience may be better with a newer (standards-compliant) browser. Furthermore, removing the ability to use PNG files for legacy browser support is somewhat harmful! Imagine if iTunes stopped selling MP3s because people on Walkman's couldn't listen to them -- no real technological advancement would be made for fear of alienating some users.

Ultimately, the decision to support PNG files is up to Automattic (the creators of Gravatar). My hope, is that they would allow the Gravatar users to pick the image format of choice while educating their users that PNG files may not show up as expected for some people.

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