Exactly. Programming isn't exactly something that can be "taught". I mean not everyone who is a CS major turns out to be a programmer. They can teach you a tool but they can't teach you how to program. as for the questions:
1,2) Me and a cousin started out making games in Macromedia Flash when i was little kid, Probably when i was 8 or 9. At first it was only copy pasted code and/or keyframing stuff. After i Studied BASIC in 9th grade, got a little more confident and started playing around with ActionScript more. By the 11th grade I was making pretty cool stuff programatically in Flash 5 (or i think was MX by then) I made a lot of game physics and game AI and stuff. In freshmen year in college, i got introduced to C and later C++ and just took off from there, learning mostly by doing, making harder programs etc. Competed in a lot of national level Programming Competitions and won.
3) Recently graduated with a CS major and working at a big software solutions firm, working on enterprise level software for insurance companies.
Btw, i think people should really take up CS in college. While you can learn programming and a ton of languages on your own, there is a lot of timeless theoretical stuff that is best learned in class. Oh and also Software Engineering stuff like "Object Oriented Analysis and Design" or "Requirements Engineering" or "Design Patterns". That stuff comes in handy a lot!
1,2) Me and a cousin started out making games in Macromedia Flash when i was little kid, Probably when i was 8 or 9. At first it was only copy pasted code and/or keyframing stuff. After i Studied BASIC in 9th grade, got a little more confident and started playing around with ActionScript more. By the 11th grade I was making pretty cool stuff programatically in Flash 5 (or i think was MX by then) I made a lot of game physics and game AI and stuff. In freshmen year in college, i got introduced to C and later C++ and just took off from there, learning mostly by doing, making harder programs etc. Competed in a lot of national level Programming Competitions and won.
3) Recently graduated with a CS major and working at a big software solutions firm, working on enterprise level software for insurance companies.
Btw, i think people should really take up CS in college. While you can learn programming and a ton of languages on your own, there is a lot of timeless theoretical stuff that is best learned in class. Oh and also Software Engineering stuff like "Object Oriented Analysis and Design" or "Requirements Engineering" or "Design Patterns". That stuff comes in handy a lot!