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Week 5 [12-18.11.2018] 12-year-old app developer

At the age of 12, this is a wonderful time when we run around the backyard, play games and learn the basics at school.  Here you can see a boy who can be said to be an inspiration for each of us. See for yourself what he is capable of






How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
Was there any IT club at your school?  Was it useful?
If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?

Comments

Unknown said…
I wrote the first algorithm in my life in the LOGO programming language. It was the third grade of elementary school. It was not an advanced level, it was more for fun. The next step was programming in C ++ in high school. However, the teacher was not too demanding. Unfortunately, there was no programming club at my school. Of course I would join if it existed.
Currently, there are more such possibilities to enroll in courses for children learning programming. My nephew has been in contact with programming and databases since kindergarten. He is able to write loops and conditional conditions.
Lukasz Mroczek said…
I wrote my first program when I was 15 years old. That time my cousin was studying on PJATK and told me about what is he doing. I was really interested and asked him to teach me a little bit. Then after some time I wrote my first simple program in C#.
There was something like IT club in my middle school but… people coming there weren’t interested in IT but they wanted to play Tibia on school computers so in my opinion it wasn’t useful.
I’d like to have better IT club in my middle school but it’s to late now. I had opportunity to lead IT club in small educational center and I was teaching boys programming in java. They were also about 12 years old.

Artem Lipovatyi said…
1. I was about 13 years old. It was a simple calculator that could perform only simple operations. Then, I tried to make a game after which game development became very interesting for me, but over time I was more interested in creating an ordinary application, I mean not games.

2. Unfortunately, there were no IT clubs in my school, so I taught everything by myself. I think at school age they could be very helpful.

3. Yes of course. I used to lack some kind of plan for studying, systematizing knowledge. I also wanted to have different tasks, which the teachers then checked and gave advice.
How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
I wrote my first program when I was 12 years old. It was created using the LOGO programming language. It was fun for me, but unfortunately, at this time, there was no continuation for it.
Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?
Sadly, we haven't had any IT club.
If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?
I would love to have such a club because at this time it would be possible for me to expand my knowledge about programming and meet people with the same interest.
"Kids know a bit more of technology than teachers" -- actually made me laugh. But this is indeed true. We jave to accept it, and make a conclusion. Maybe, the whole structure of programming does not require some serious preparation and training, and it fits young and flexible brains the most? See, a 12 year old kid is capable of creating an app. Which makes him suitable for being a teacher on this subject. This could not be possible with some astrophysics, microbiology, surgery, etc, etc. All of those require if not huge, but at least some decent knowledge base and analytical thinking. Their entry threshold is colossal. But what about programming languages? What are they based on? Logic. What else do you need to create a program? Nothing. Only thing that is required -- is capability of designing and problem solving. For a kid the only problem that might occur -- is the lack of perseverance. But, so can it be for an adult.

In my opinion, the best thing about programming is that it is comprehensible and possible to master by literally anyone. I have no idea, why so many people are scared of learning it, fearing it will be difficult. It won't.
Bartosz Barnat said…
I started programming when I was in studies. So it was three years ago and I loved it. The feeling that you made a computer do something for you was mind-blowing. From the begginning I started to learn more and more because I was always just playing computer games and didn't know a thing about this part of computers. I had noone to show me how to do it or what should I do to accomplish something and all I learned was from websites on the internet because first lessons in studies didn't give me that much.

There was a IT club created by some teacher from outside of our school where we learned how to do simple HTML websites but it lasted just few months because noone was interested in computers that much and my IT teacher from school didn't know that much about computers so he wasn't a viable source of information about that. I think because of him I didn't want to learn something more about computer because I never wanted to be someone like him, someone that noone liked and was just a life looser. Honestly he was really a guy that I didn't want to have anything in common.


I had this IT course for a while and I loved it. I think if there would be more of that I would likely join and want to know other interesting things about computers. It is nice to be a part of a group that shares similar interests. I think I would met a lot interesting people and we would push our interests harder and it might have lead us to something bigger that would change our future. But it's just my thoughts about something that didn't happend so we never know.
This boy is too smart for his age, because he is so young and already done something interesting. I think his parents proud of him. When I wrote my first program, I was 16 and it was in C++. It wasn't something complicated, it was core things. Unfortunately, in my school wasn't IT club, but my father is programmer and he helped me with it and it was very useful for me. I think even if IT club was in my school, I didn't go there. Because in all my questions my father always explained and helped me with it.
Iman Masjedi said…
I remember the first computer program I wrote at the age of 14 with the Qbasic programming language.A simple "hello world" code. For me at that age, the result of program was very attractive.
Yes, our school had an IT club and the robotics team was active. My classmates were members of this IT club and I was one of its members. We made simple computer programs or shared our computer knowledge with one another.
Unknown said…
I was about 20 years old when I wrote my first program. I felt great when I created my first program. The feeling that you created something even if it was a pretty simple program, was one of the best feelings in my life.

There was not any IT club in my school.

If there was an IT club I would definitely go to it because I would want to learn new things and would start writing programs much earlier.
Unknown said…
For the first time, I wrote my program in my second year at university, at the age of 20. I wrote it in order to show my knowledge in school, and not because it was my hobby. Years have passed and I gladly do this every day.
No, in my school there was nothing of the kind, there were clubs for acting and language improvement.
I would love to get acquainted with the development of programs even earlier, but I never had an iPhone and I did other things that were not related to programming at all. But I am glad that now I can do it.
Foodocado said…
It's a tricky question. The first technology that I've tried (so as many people) was HTML. I was at the age of 10. Yes, I know it's not a programming language... I was developing my very first, simple pages. I was so excited, that I am able to create something with a few lines of code. In the junior high-school, the friend of mine inspired me with his knowledge of programming. He was using PHP to create his own browser game. Therefore my next technology was PHP. After year or two, the IT club was created in my school, so I started attending it. The professor was preparing students to participate the algorithmic olympiad. To solve algorithmic problems, we were using C/C++. I think, it was the time, I realized it's something I want to do in my life.
Like, i have no idea. I never wanted to become a developer but in highschool i thought i wan't to make games and i sticked to this idea. I wanted so bad. And then i started my education durring which i turned my interest 180 degree and so i became .net developer. So as you can expect i don't even know if i had such classes. My first aware line of code was at first year at pjwstk. And sure, at begining it was tought but later i don't think it makes such great difference after you get some real experience. Also after now you should already know that even i had such oportunity in his age i would laugh it off and go play some football.
Vladlen Kyselov said…
I have wrote my first program when I was 15 years old, that was the time when I decided to dedicate my to programming. Every next successfully finished program made me feel enthusiastic, it motivated me to move on. Even now, creating something unique something new for me makes me feel excited and satisfied. In my school there were absolutely no computer science lessons, so I have learned everything by myself. If only we had an IT club I would join with a great pleasure. I would like to join it, because, when I was on the very beginning of my self education in programming I really needed some advises and help from experienced developers.
1. How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
It was in primary school, in 2nd or 3rd grade when i wrote my first code in LOGO programning language. It was very simple.

2. Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?
There was an IT club in my high school but lessons weren't actually about programming but about using Gimp and Ms Office. I didn't have any programming lessons at school (besides LOGO haha) before coming to PJATK.

3. If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?
There was such a club but I wasn't really interested to join it. Gimp and Ms Office havent seemed to be so interesting and I wasn't really interested in IT back then.
Unknown said…
Your nephew is cool :D I also remember Lego programming language, but at that time I didn't have such a desire for programming.
Unknown said…
I also remember playing Tibia or Quake instead of computer lessons in high school. My teacher was not very demanding, so there was nothing interesting in my lessons.
Unknown said…
The calculator was also one of my first programs, I remember those beautiful times.
Unknown said…
As far as the IT club is concerned, I think the same. This club would certainly help you at the beginning of our studies and beyond.
Unknown said…
I was 17 when I wrote first “real” program. It was “Matrix Helper”, program that help’s me better understand how work with math matrices and it made all simple actions that take a lot of time to solve it on paper. It was program with very simple GUI, but it works well.
No, there wasn’t any IT clubs at my school. In last grade in school I visited private programming course that help me understand algorithms and learn basics of Java. Because of this course it was simpler to studying at first year at university.
Yes, I would like to go to one if he was. In the last 2 years of school I understood that I like programming and that will be my future profession.
Unknown said…
This little gentlemen definitely can't inspire me to program more or to go to the IT club. First of all I'm not sure that his history is true. It's too ideal and his speech was like Steve Jobs's in his best years. Second is that even if it's true, he's one of million. His success doesn't prove that everybody can have it.

My first program is simple CRUD that I made for some subject here at school. And it was painful.

There were IT clubs in my city when I was a child. You could play Ultima Online, CS 1.6 and DoTa there. Nothing connected with programming or IT.

I would love to go to literature club or Project Management courses. I give up programming because it doesn't matter what do you want to do or in what area you could be good as you think. You often just can't go against your nature and it's really important to realize that in time.
Unknown said…
I can't remember how old I was when I first wrote a program. It was somewhen in the middle school during the first IT club meeting. I didn't like it to be honest, but for some reason I stuck with it. My first programming language was Pascal. In high school we also had IT club, which was an extension to our regular IT class. It was more enjoyable and very exhausting. But yet again I stuck with it. I wasn’t the best in the class, but I was always there and always listening and learning. In the end it was very useful. If it wasn’t for those IT clubs, I probably wouldn’t be where I am right now. It helped me a lot to get through the first semester of my studies.
Cezary Róg said…
I started my adventure with programming when I was 10 years old. I made my first website. I really liked the fact that it was me who decided how something looks like. I really wished there was an IT club at my school. I would definitely go there if it was good. I think I could learn some new stuff from others and maybe build something bigger together. But to make something like this work in school, especially in primary school, it needs a lot of involvement from teachers.
Unknown said…
I started programming in elementary school with LOGO programming language, then in high school we were using Pascal and as one of the assignments we had to create simple calculator in this language.
There was an IT club in my high school, unfortunately it was led by the math teacher who hadn't enough knowledge concerning programming and that is why classes were not interesting or challenging and additionally it was often used as additional math classes.
I had some contact with coding as a kid (like many ones before me with LOGO for example or with HTML and some php), but it was just a short trip. I mad at myself that I'm not coder since a kid, but that's a life - you can not change the past. I wrote my first serious program at collage.
In my school there wasn't any IT club and that's a shame. If there would be one I would totally enjoy it. Problem with clubs like that is a fact that there would be problem with finding someone who would be good to run it. If you are good in IT, especially in coding, you would not probably teach in primary school.
Marcin Krupa said…
"How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?"
I was around 12 years old and it was in school. I wrote simple website, but of course I didn't use any programming language... just HTML and CSS. It's hard to call it "program", but still I was really proud of my work. Some months later I started learning C++. My first program in that language was "99 Bottles of Beer".

"Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?"
In school? Unfortunately no. My IT teacher was completely like in programming and I didn't remember any personality which could handle leading that type of club.

"If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?" - I'm not sure. In my young age I was pretty lazy. I'm afraid that going to this club may be only flash in the pan.
Anna Moskalenko said…
When I wrote my first program I was probably like 11 or something like this. I had programming classes from the 6th (or maybe 5th) year of school. I had this funny LOGO language, then Pascal, then Visual Basic, HTML and CSS.
There were no IT clubs in my school, but it wasn’t necessary too, because I had IT-related classes 6-7 times per week from the 6th grade to 11th grade, so quite a lot :)
I would go to the IT club related to robotics or computer graphics though. But we haven’t had anything like this.
Marcin Górski said…
Hmmm, I think it was in my middle school. I bought my first C++ book and it was beginning. Nowadays, I am thinking that I should chose easier programming language to learn because C++ is very hard.
To be honest, I am from smaller town and I was in "classic" school without any additional clubs/interesting extra lessons. Programming was my hobby after school. I liked to spend time on that.
What about last question? I think no. I like to learn alone. When I am in my room I can focus on something. It's better than clubs because you can waste time on talking with other people etc.
Illia Lukisha said…
How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
I was about 14-15 years old, and that was a game written in old programming language Paskal. It was a text game, where you were able to answer the questions and control the plot.

Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?
I didn't have a club in my school, but I have one in my town, in other school, and when I was about 12 years old, I learned basics of Photoshop, Word, PowerPoint and others. Thats was pretty cool, because I didn't have a computer at home, so it was an opportunity to actually learn how to use it.
I started a little bit early — I was 9 when I first started programming in Macromedia Flash. By the age of 16, I had 4 paid apps on the App Store which actually made me some money. As a teenager in high school, I couldn’t wish for more. Now I’m one of top 5 most senior engineers in the company of 500 people I work in. Totally worth it. ;)

My first program was a Flash website, a fan site of Club Penguin, a cartoon MMO game which was popular back in the day. It was awful, of course, but I enjoyed every bit of making it and presenting it to my friends. The satisfaction of crafting something other people can use has been a very strong motivation for me ever since.

This might be surprising but I’ve never attended any IT clubs. I didn’t understand their purpose since I was more oriented towards pure, unrestricted creativity and learning something on my own. I also hated IT classes, although it was actually an IT class in my primary school where I first encountered the game I mentioned before (and thus became interested in programming).

Since I started very early, I’ve always been ahead of school material when it comes to my knowledge and skill. So the only way IT classes were useful for me, is that it easily gave me a good mark.
Szymon Gibalski said…
1. How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
- I was 19 when I wrote my first program it was a simple calculator in C++ without any graphical user interface.

2. Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?
- I do not know, maybe there was an IT club at my school but I was too lazy to check it and too shy to ask.

3. If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?
- I would not join it because I prefer to work alone. I can set my own goals and achieve them in my own way and when I want. I do not like the idea of coming to school or any other places to do something when you can achieve the same result in your house via Skype.
Unknown said…
1. I first wrote my program in LOGO when I was in middle school. It was nice experience but I have to say that it was quite hard because I have teacher without a knowledge about a programming.

2. No, at my school wasn't any IT clubs and from the now perspective I think that it was bad. Maybe when I had had a teacher with any knowledge about a programming I would have started think earlier about becoming a programmer.
Unknown said…
1. I was 14 when I wrote my first program. It was based on another program but with fixes and new features, so was it mine? I don't know. Never liked programming but I needed good bot for Diablo 2 to farm items. That was so long ago...
2. There was no IT clubs or any clubs in my school. Really. So I can't say if it was useful, it was dramatic that we hadn't one.
3. Hmmm... Maybe... I would like to try it once and check if I'm really into it. If yes, I woul still attend and write bots for games, cause many people pay large ammount of money for it. Good money + fun = WELL EARNED MONEY.
My first programm was writen in LOGO programming in primarary school we were participating in city wide contest for young "programmers" we didn't achieve anything special but it was fun for me.
No I didn't have any IT clubs in my school whats more in every school I was attending we had a teacher who probably never used computer before classes, there was a plenty situations that we needed to help him when something wen wrong during classes.
On every computing class we were "learning" how to prepare presentation or write letter in MS office package.
I don't think i would go there because I didn't know that programming will become my passion then.
Unknown said…
I used to get a tibia private server – called OTS when I was 12 years old. To make it better than others I had to learn how to program. I believe that feeling when I saw queues to my server because my work was that good that people were willing to wait a couple of minutes to play, placed a seed inside me. That seed had grown, and now because of this, I decided to become a programmer.

Unforturnetly, IT subject wasn't popular at my school, so I hadn't such opportunity. I was amazed about of potential in programming at that time, so for sure, I would join one if there was any. Usually, clubs gather people who are interested in one or another area, and it's a perfect place to discuss your thought because people similar to you surround you.
Unknown said…
I was 16 years old when I wrote my first program, I was very happy and proud of myself
the only school with additional informatics classes is pjatk I have never had additional classes before and I would gladly go there if they were, it would help me many things even related to the university,
1. How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
My first program was written at the university at 2012 in Pascal language. It was simple program, nothing special.
2. Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?
No, We didn't have any clubs at the school at all, not talking even about IT club. In Ukraine it's normal.
3. If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?
Suppose, if we had one, I think this club would was not interesting for schoolboy, because for teachers to keep up with the times in IT is impossible task.
I was 15 when I wrote my program for the first time. It was an amazing feeling when it started to execute!

In my high school there was an IT club, but unfortunately it wasn't useful, because they didn't teach the programming but only Office Package.

I had, but I would go to another IT club because I would like to learn programming and not use an Office Package.
Unknown said…
How old were you when you first wrote your program? What was it like?
In fact, I have wrote my first program few months before I've signed to PJATK. It was a "game" or rather an app, which looked like a game. User had to type the states (US states) and when he guessed any, the state bounds have been drawn on the screen. The more states he guesses, the more map got filled with states.

Was there any IT club at your school? Was it useful?
Well, as I have started my journey with IT in collage, it is hard to answer this question. At the moment I've joined to PJATK there were no IT clubs whatsoever, that's why I have created one on my second year. However, our Android club is now closed and school is not prone to help me with it.

If you didn't have one, would you go to one if he was? Why?
I guess yes, as I said I made one myself so probably I would participate in another one. If you were asking school like high school, I'd rather not join any IT club as I wasn't interested in computer science back then.
Unknown said…
Haha, out of curiosity, I downloaded his game and is really good for a child at the age of 12. This kid has talent. The first program I wrote in my life was in my studies at Mr. Tomaszewski's and it was a simple "Hello world".
Unfortunately, I have not heard anything about such a club in my school, but if it was there, I would definitely be willing to participate in such a club. Even if he was in primary school.
I would like to attend such a club because at such a young age I’d already have basic knowledge about programming, it's a treasure. Such children can achieve a lot in the next part of their life. I think that if I had a son, I would gladly send him to some programming classes to make life easier and to find a new hobby that earns a lot of money.
Wojtek Protasik said…
I was 16 or 17 when I bought or was given a book to learn C++. I was really curious how this stuff works, then didn't touch it for a long time. I don't think the age matters when it comes to exploring a new topic. I know many skilled people who achieve more in a short time periods than wannabe life long hackers. I admire the passion the boy is driven by, but in the same time I wouldn't want it.

There probably was, but I always preferred sport. It's also pretty hopeless when the computer world is brought to you in a very boring way as it was in schools I attended to. I remember I had to write instructions to move turtle. Finally, when bored to death we ended up changing the turtle shape into symbol of the manhood and instructing it to draw shapes that were at least funny.

I wouldn't go even if they paid me. Still happy I chose sport activities.
If my memory serves me right, the first code that I’ve written in my life was back in the secondary school (I did have some previous experiences with HTML and creating interactive apps in a game engine, but I don’t think those count). The CS lessons there involved software called Logomocja that was designed to facilitate teaching the basics of programming and thought processes involved. It featured a little turtle placed on canvas that could be told, via code of course, how to move and draw on the screen. The silly thing got me seriously involved in computer science, and achieving a high position in an official contest in the coming years has paved my way to my dream high school. My secondary school was lacking in a dedicated IT club, so I ended up attending meetings of the one located in the nearby high school, where I started learning the basics of C. When in high school, I attended both a programming club and a network administration one, both being very pleasant and enlightening experiences. I even participated in starting a robotics club, that seems to be thriving in that school to this day. I think that extracurricular activities like those amount more to my actual knowledge than regular lessons, and for that reason I think that every school should focus on having a wide range of such clubs that serve to broaden its students’ horizons and give them actual, hands-on experience rather than dry knowledge.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I have never learned to programme before PJATK. I have chosen this sphere, because of its perspective in the future and to be honest, because of its popularity and average salary. But I lied when I said that have never learned to programme before PJATK, because I tried to make a web page before the academy, but I failed.
I born in a small city in Ukraine where you probably can find a few people actually knowing what programming is. So the answer - no. A didn’t have any IT club at my school.
And of course, I’d love to have such an IT club at my school. Why? Because the future in programming and it has already come and children as least from the middle school should know what the programming is.

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