[hackermom]

I learned by typing in BASIC program listings from computer magazines on my VIC-20 in the mid 80s. That slowly transitioned to modifying programs to see what would happen. At some blurry point the trial and error shifted to me actually understanding the language - and more importantly, the realization of programming logics - and starting to use it intuitively to write my own programs.

[Estragon]

Similar story for me, except after BASIC it was Forth and 6809 assembly (and I had a TRS-80 Color Computer) and after a while I grew obsessed with data compression algorithms. Man, I used to love browsing old copies of Byte.