Whenever I would visit my grandmother growing up, one of the highlights was she had space invaders on her computer. Once, my Uncle Don saw me captivated by space invaders and decided to show me how computer games are written.

Uncle Don pulled up a command prompt in DOS and started writing QBasic code to create a simple application. I was amazed that it was so easy to talk to a computer. I wanted to do it myself.

What was your first language?

Basic

What languages have you used since you started programming?

Java, C++, C#, SAS, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Ruby, C, Basic, Python, Assembly Language, Visual Basic, SQL, ASP

What was the first real program you wrote?

In school I wrote a Jabber client in C#. I was impressed by the drag and drop rich client tools in Visual Studio. That lasted about a day.

What was your first professional programming gig?

Working for a client project with Object Mentor. The first team I was on included Micah Martin, David Chelimsky, Tim Ottinger, Dave Astels, Craig Demyanovich, James Grenning, and Dean Wampler.

I had more than just a few mentors to learn from. It was an awing experience for me seeing how great coders code.

If there is one thing you would tell new developers, what would it be?

Play well with others. It takes teams working well together to create most meaningful software.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had programming?

Working with the 8th Light team on a project. Many times seeing the requirements for a story, I will say to myself, “can that even be done”?

After seeing creative solutions from the team, it has taught me if you are working with good people and good tools, there are only endless solutions.

The most amusing thing to learn about programming is if something isn’t all ready there, invent it.