Oldest programmer??

[Benzaa]

Today I was wondering who could be the oldest programmer in the linux community.

I am 27 years old and I feel that will be programming for another 10 years.

After that, maybe I'll start my own dog training company and maybe my tv show.

That seems to be the hot trend these days.

What do you think??

[BuffaloX]

I'm 45 but I don't do much programming anymore.
Not a pro, I just do some hacking for fun sometimes.

[Grant A.]

Richard M. Stallman is 55 and is still programming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M_Stallman

[-grubby]

Maybe some people that worked on mainframes back in the day are still alive and programming?

[Grant A.]

Maybe some people that worked on mainframes back in the day are still alive and programming?

George Washington? :P

[clustermonkey]

I'm 68 (BD 10/18/40) and still slinging code. I've
got two part-time jobs; sysadmin for several HPC
clusters in a biochem research lab, and doing optimization
tricks on scientific programs in another lab; and drawing
full social security. You might say I'm semi-retired.

I know at least three other folks that are older than I am
that are still programming for NASA and the oil companies in
Houston. And none of us would do anything different, even
if we had the chance...

And yeah, I worked on mainframes (COBOL/FORTRAN/ALGOL) "back in the day"....

[Benzaa]

I'm 68 (BD 10/18/40) and still slinging code. I've
got two part-time jobs; sysadmin for several HPC
clusters in a biochem research lab, and doing optimization
tricks on scientific programs in another lab; and drawing
full social security. You might say I'm semi-retired.

I know at least three other folks that are older than I am
that are still programming for NASA and the oil companies in
Houston. And none of us would do anything different, even
if we had the chance...

And yeah, I worked on mainframes (COBOL/FORTRAN/ALGOL) "back in the day"....

Wow, 68, I thought I wouldnt find someone beyond 50.

Im saying this because my father is trying to learn to program. He is 59 and I feel that it could be too difficult for him.

He hasnt had any previous training with programming. He will be starting from zero.

Any suggestions?

and by the way, what language are you using mainly these days?

[Calmatory]

I don't believe that programming is any more different than any other skill is. Yes, the work is done by the brain but that shouldn't be a problem, people learn to program at ages from 7 to 15, and I am pretty sure that brain at age 50+ is way more further developed than at age below 15.

Sure it is easier for a youngster to learn new things, but actually using the things learnt might be easier for older person, then again, people are individuals and no one is the same, so for one it might be almost impossible to grasp on something, and for some it is easy as slicing a cake. Same with applying the learnt skills.

But yeah, I'd still believe that earlier = better. Heck, I am 18 and people have said that "Too late to start programming, people at ages of 13 will be a lot better anyway and get the jobs later on".

[clustermonkey]

Wow, 68, I thought I wouldnt find someone beyond 50.

Im saying this because my father is trying to learn to program. He is 59 and I feel that it could be too difficult for him.

He hasnt had any previous training with programming. He will be starting from zero.

Any suggestions?

and by the way, what language are you using mainly these days?

As far as anyone trying to learn programming, it is the same as
any other learning process. You will progress only as fast as
you can assimilate the ideas behind the new skill.
The younger you are, it seems, the easier it is because you
don't have a lot of preconcieved notions to unlearn that are
barriers to new learning.

These days, I mostly use C and a lot of bash scripts. I admin
several HPC clusters in a biochem research lab and help the PhD
scientists optimize their brute force FORTRAN programs. Most of
that optimization is writing C functions that either wrap the
FORTRAN for multithreading or C funtions that replace some
sluggish FORTRAN functions. I do have some other projects that
use other languages, but they are minor.

I have, over the years, programmed in assembler for several
different processors, COBOL. FORTRAN, APL, ALGOL, FORTH, TAL,
C, C++, BASIC among others, including more than several scripting
languages. No one is easier than the other, just different.

I would like to add that even though I started working with tab
card equipment in the late '50s and started programming in the
early '60s, have been exposed to all kinds of software and
hardware, that there are very few days that go by that I don't
learn something new, or a new way of looking at something old.

Best advice; question everything you know, and strive to answer
those questions. Then question those answers...

[Wv0wvw88wvw0vW]

I don't believe that programming is any more different than any other skill is. Yes, the work is done by the brain but that shouldn't be a problem, people learn to program at ages from 7 to 15, and I am pretty sure that brain at age 50+ is way more further developed than at age below 15.

After the age of around 25, your cognitive abilities start to degrade, unless of course, you make an effort to maintain intelligence. Fairly beside the point... but meh

[Benzaa]

I do believe that everybody can learn whatever they want.

It is just a matter of time and effort.

My concern about my father is the starting point.

I dont know how to explain him some of the basics ideas behing programming.

For example, the idea of an object.

I think that mostly all progammers are use to the concept and in my case I even imagine the object physically :D.

But when I tried to explain that to my pa, it seems that it is out of his imagination.

Any ideas for an easy to learn programming language?
I told him to try python, to my is one of the easiest and it will let you create a buch of things without worring about memory management and stuff like that.

[rhj4]

:P

I started programming in June, 1967. I am now 65 and (if my mind holds out) cannot retire until I am 70. I work 40++ hours/week coding C#, .NET/ SQL Server and am trying to get my ancient brain around JavaScript, but the weak typing drives me nuts.

[snip3r8]

"cognitive abilities" seem to only be gained after 16(for few) and 25 for most human beings

[beew]

After the age of around 25, your cognitive abilities start to degrade, unless of course, you make an effort to maintain intelligence. Fairly beside the point... but meh

That is ageist garbage, it is about as valid as the assertion that we "all know" that women cannot do math . Check out neuroplasticity.

[beew]

I do believe that everybody can learn whatever they want.

It is just a matter of time and effort.

My concern about my father is the starting point.

I dont know how to explain him some of the basics ideas behing programming.

For example, the idea of an object.

I think that mostly all progammers are use to the concept and in my case I even imagine the object physically :D.



Well maybe it has to do with your explanatory skills? Not to get personal, in my experience many programmer types are very bad at explaining things. Instead of trying to explain the concepts and logic concisely they throw jargon and irrelevant details that just confuse the hell out of the uninitiated. I am a mathematician and this way of procedural rather than conceptual way of explaining things is horrible IMO.

[lisati]

At 50, I still have a few years to go until I'm, 68. I started on punched cards using a dialect of Fortran, and picked up snippets of other languages along the way, but don't do much programming these days. My first proper job nearly 30 years ago included ASM on one of the IBM 370 range.