How Many Of You Are Self-Taught Programmers/Developers?

[Vermillion]

Like the title says; how many of you are self taugh programmers or (web/non web developers)? Personally, I started to learn everything by myself when I wanted to make a "neohome" for a website. For that, I had to know HTML and put all my thoughts there (because I am the expressive type of people). After learning HTML, a friend of mine mentioned CSS to me, so I went ahead and learned that too. Then I wanted to do more dynamic stuff, so I moved ahead and learned some JavaScript. All of this was on late 2006 and early 2007. Then on late 2007, I had enough confidence and I started to learn PHP. It was the most confusing language for me so I purchased books for it and learned it. Although I am still learning all of those, now I learn while I create, so I am even making my own forum software . While I keep learning PHP and the other web related ones, I am currently learning C++ (one year on it) and C#. There are many other things I have to consider, but for now I will work with those. Also, about graphic design... Everyone gets a bit of experience on that, right ;P?

[JasonLewis]

Yup, I'm self taught. I began learning HTML back when I was making Anime websites. Oh those were the days. Actually, before HTML I was using... Geocities, I think. Or maybe MSN Groups. Can't remember which, maybe both. After them I moved onto making my own websites from scratch. HTML, to me, was really scary but I went through this really good online tutorial which no doubt no longer exists.

After HTML I think I went straight to PHP. Started with the basic thing, since all Anime sites had awesome links like ?site=folder/file, I had to put it on mine. Took me ages to do.

Then I started to learn more PHP and slowly incorporated MySQL into my learning. JavaScript came pretty easy, and I've been making games in Sphere which uses JavaScript to power it. So I got a lot of experience in that.

Oh and CSS came in about a few years ago for me, still learning that though.

 

So yeah, I consider myself pretty much self taught. Never read a book about any of the languages I know. I prefer Dan Brown's books.

 

I would like to learn some of the C languages though. Maybe, one day...

[dropfaith]

i am also self taught i actually started in a chatroom on beseen.com building small javascript scripts to run the chat smoother on my pc and to generate new handles. then moved into html from there.. As for css i picked up a pocket guide to it and pretty much read that a few times and got most of the basics down the rest just fell into place as i needed things..

 

as for php i worked with a programmer who loved it and used it alot and as a designer  i needed to work around his content on his cms so i needed to pick up basics and eventually just started looking at tutorials so i could learn it

[waynewex]

Learned HTML, CSS and Java in college; although I can honestly say that most of my knowledge on those areas came from me learning those subjects as a hobby... with a slight obsession. Started teaching myself PHP back in February. I heart PHP.

[DarkWater]

I'm self-taught!   I know uhh...C, C++, C# (sadly.  I don't use it anymore, it was like a big, M$ rip-off of Java), Java, Perl, PHP, SQL, Javascript, CSS, (X)HTML, and enough asm to be able to follow where the memory is going, but I really should learn it more.  The next big language I'm going to learn is probably going to be ActionScript (Flash).

 

Phew.

[Daniel0]

I'm an autodidact as well. I want to study computer science though - all the way to PhD.

[JasonLewis]

Become some sort of professor.

 

@DarkWater: I know a bit of ActionScript, but I suck at Flash so I couldn't be bothered learning any more.

[waynewex]

I don't know why but I hate ActionScript. It's a bag of rape.

[KevinM1]

I don't know why but I hate ActionScript. It's a bag of rape.

 

How different is ActionScript from JavaScript?  I ask because I thought they were both based on EMCAScript.

 

I haven't tried ActionScript myself as I have the artistic ability of a blind gnat.

[.josh]

ActionScript is similar to JavaScript in syntax, but the programming principles are very different.  Basic things like loops, etc.. are pretty much the same, but AS revolves around manipulating things in a physical way.  You have a stage with scenes and layers and objects on those layers and imbedding all that within the objects and then throwing a timeline into the mix on top of that.  Many timelines, actually, because each object has it's own timeline inside itself, etc... even just sticking to straight animation in flash can get pretty complex.  Throwing AS on top of that is...well, IMO you really have to have strong visualization skills in order to take advantage of what flash is capable of. 

[KevinM1]

ActionScript is similar to JavaScript in syntax, but the programming principles are very different.  Basic things like loops, etc.. are pretty much the same, but AS revolves around manipulating things in a physical way.  You have a stage with scenes and layers and objects on those layers and imbedding all that within the objects and then throwing a timeline into the mix on top of that.  Many timelines, actually, because each object has it's own timeline inside itself, etc... even just sticking to straight animation in flash can get pretty complex.  Throwing AS on top of that is...well, IMO you really have to have strong visualization skills in order to take advantage of what flash is capable of.

 

Ah, gotcha.  Yeah, that doesn't sound like much fun.

[dennismonsewicz]

Self Taught in PHP, CSS, MySQL, HTML, DHTML, Javascript, AJAX, XHTML and I know some ColdFusion (Though I cannot stand the technology and I think it needs to be dropped!)

 

PHP ALL THE WAY!

[xylex]

I don't think that any of us who have been doing this for awhile are really "self-taught."  We may not be going to a college to get information, but we're either asking questions to people who have more experience in an area in forums like this one, reading other people blogs and learning from them, attending conferences and meetups to learn from others, learning from other people on your team, etc.

 

I think that the idea of being self-taught stops when you stop learning just by trial and error or hacking at other people's code, though I suppose some people make a living doing just that. But typically, at some point, you learn to ask the right questions, where and who to ask those questions, and start seeking guidance and education from others.

[Daniel0]

No... a dictionary definition of "self-taught" is "taught to oneself or by oneself to be (as indicated) without the aid of a formal education" or "having knowledge or skills acquired by one's own efforts without formal instruction". Thus if you did not have a teacher then you're self-taught. I learn by trail and error, and by reading books and articles. That makes me self-taught because I've not learned it through formal education and because I have not received formal instruction. Plenty of other people do that as well.

[xylex]

From m-w.com:

 

self-taught

 

1 : having knowledge or skills acquired by one's own efforts without formal instruction <a self–taught musician>

 

2 : learned by oneself <self–taught knowledge>

 

If you're acquiring knowledge from other people's mistakes and flaws, you're learning from their efforts, not your own.  And unless you've never worked in team environment, you've learned from your teammates as well.  Regardless of whether or not it was in a formal environment, if you're learning from other people explaining to you how to do something, you don't meet the first part of the definition of self-taught.

[waynewex]

I think that in order to learn anything inside out, you have a to carry with you in life, a degree of self learning.

[Daniel0]

@xylex: That's nonsense. If you've learned something autodidactically then it means, according to the above dictionary definition, that you've learned it without formal instruction/education^[1]. Therefore, if you have not had a person whose role to you was a teacher (or something that resembles a teacher) in a specific subject then you are an autodidact. It doesn't mean that just because you've learned something by observing how other people did it then you're not an autodidact. Nor does it mean that you cannot draw on other people's research or information given by other people as long as it did not happen in a formal educational environment. If a person on a forum for instance told you that the PCRE extension is better than POSSIX regex in PHP because the former is faster, then it doesn't suddenly mean you haven't learned PHP by yourself. I'd say it's being able to take bits and pieces from all sorts of places and use those collectively to form your entire skill set that makes you an autodidact. That's opposed to going to school where they will teach you the things you need throughout a confined course (could for instance be called "Object Oriented Programming and Design" or "Introduction to Distributed Systems") or more general classes which could for instance be an English class whose goal is to teach you the English language.

 

^[1] "Formal education consists of systematic instruction, teaching and training by professional teachers. This consists of the application of pedagogy and the development of curricula." (source)

[.josh]

What difference does it make whether a teacher passes knowledge to you orally or written?  Is it that I can interact with the teacher? Well, what if I understood what was conveyed without asking questions? Then, what difference does it really make?

[kazil]

Not completely a self-taught, had 2-3 classes at college 'bout web development and programming, but that was not enough even to make a basic CRUD web app... By the dictionary, no, I'm not a self-taught... By the amount of knowledge that I gained myself vs. in formal education, then, yeah, I'm a self taught.

I think that besides formal education you need to put a lot into developing your skills, many hacking till the early morning, so in the end, everybody is more a self-taught then not...

[aximbigfan]

I am too.

Currently:

HTML

CSS

JS

PHP

Vb (learning)

batch

sh

some C

 

 

Chris

[Derleek]

why not ask what the original poster had in mind with his/her definition of 'self-taught'?  I would wager to guess that he/she was placing more emphasis on the whole 'formal education' thing.

 

which could translate, "did you go to college to learn to be so cool and program?"

 

and no. i did not.  all though i'm not as cool as a lot of people on php freaks

[Maq]

I started by learning java and basic web languages on my own but got really into web development when I got into school and was introduced to some other languages.  Then when I worked for my internship, where I learned twice as much as school taught me, I got really into web development.  So I guess I'm a tweener...