How old were you when you started programming?

7th grade is when I first started getting into the idea of web development and learning HTML and JavaScript and whatnot, but it wasn't until my freshman or sophomore year that I actually started coding any real languages.

How did you get started in programming?

My friend Weston and I took an interest in developing web sites around the 7th grade and I have been making them ever since (and now much more; the web sites are just a side hobby).  We wrote everything out in raw HTML and taught ourselves JavaScript from looking at source code from other sites and just goofing around.  So that is pseudo-programming, but probably my freshman or sophomore year of high school is when I started learning PHP and developing web sites for businesses and actually getting paid.

What was your first language?

PHP using a mySQL database.

What was the first real program that you wrote?

I posted on my personal web site back in high school about how I would design web sites for businesses really cheap as a way of cutting my teeth.  An artist in Italy somehow found the site and hired me.  It was pretty surreal.  I developed a site for him for pratically nothing but he sent me more than what I asked for and also sent me two of his paintings, one of which is still in my cubicle today.  I then made one for an Italian hotel owned by a friend of his and then started making sites for local businesses.

What languages have you used since you started programming?

People can have a long debate about which of these are true programming languages but here's a generic list:  HTML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, ASP, ASP.NET, VB6, VB.NET, Java, COBOL, JCL.

What was your first professional programming gig?

After working on my own earning gas money by making sites for local businesses throughout high school, in college I was hired at a web development company and worked there for a couple of years.  I later worked with Josh at the medical software company but was hired as a graphic designer and didn't do much actual programming there.  Now I work for a national trucking company writing a variety of different programs in various languages.

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

Absolutely.  I was born to code and design.  I love the UI portion but I love to code too, so I am torn between the two sectors.

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

If you can't write the code, get out of the kitchen!  But seriously, if you don't LOVE it, don't do it.

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

Writing an instant messenger application.