   Why do you program (if at all)?
  Ok, so I've seen a post entitled "WHEN and HOW did most of us start programming?", but I was wondering more about why do you do it.What moves you? What do you want to achieve? How do you see yourself programming 20-30 years from now?Guess I should take the opportunity and answer my version:So cool.I actualy started programming almost right away, when I got my first computer. It was the coolest toy ever (a Commodore 64, if you wanna know, and that probably meant BASIC too :P) - and the prospect of making my own games made it almost too good to be true. I actualy love programming, it's just like my take on sports climbing: I don't care as much about how good I am at it, as I care about always taking it to the limit.So programming is, for me, an excercise in learning, bending my mind, thinking outside the box and abstracting. And the better I can become at it, I will.As of the future, I hope to be still grinding metal with languages like todays' C and C++.Thanks for your time,M.   
  It is what I like doing most. It's my hobby, not what I want to make my job about and not what my studies (electrical engineering) are about.   ;  Programming is the purest place that engineering meets mathematics, and I enjoy both fields quite a bit.Programming allows me to see what I'm capable of in a way little else does, and pencil&paper methods may work just as well, computers are far more convenient. My lazyness wins enough as it is.Computer use in general is an exercise in learning - I spend a significant portion of my time browsing sites like wikipedia and citeseer, and someday I'll subscribe to ACM and IEEE to have even larger libraries at my fingertips.It's surprising how much you can pick up when you look into whatever you want - for example, I just noticed that I left off 'introduce modern locks' in my response to the 'time travel to medeival period' thread.   ;  I learned to program so I could make games.  I'm not a very technical person (though I'm a decent enough coder), but having learned to program often makes others consider me a "programmer" instead of "game designer"... it's hard to get into design/production when they want to keep you writing code :(   ;  I started programming at the age of 6, some time after I learned to read and write...it all started on an old Apple I, with BASIC (yes, it was once a good language, before the word "visual" got added to it). There was no real reason for me to do it (I mean, why would a kid want to program? certainly not to make money or impress friends), other than the fact it was cool, and I could get the computer to do what I wanted.  Since nobody ever stopped me from doing it, I just kept going, made a few silly text-mode games, and at the age of 18 I started making my first commercial game - also just because it was fun - I only do it because I enjoy it.---Java sux.;  I grew up as an obsessive street fighter player, so I was always addicted to video games. Because of this one of my long term goals is to work at Capcom at least once in my life. This and the desire to learn more drives me back day after day.   ;  I started programming because when I was child I didn't have money to go to games center and play Tetris. So I wanted to build my own tetris to play for free.I made several attempt but I still didn't compleeted any Tetris clone, but I hope to write one soon. I had a crush for the GP2X this month and waiting to receive it I wrote a clone of space invaders to warm up (remembering C/C++, learning SDL, ...). I feel THIS time I will do it !   ;  I used to program because i loved it.. i really did.  The pursuit of learning new and interesting stuff.  Started programming my own games bacause my machine was too rubbish to play the cool games at the time.  Now programming is my job and i hate it, but what can you do?  I just do it because i have to.   ;  I started programming because the thought of making my own laser wielding, indestructable robot with take over the world capabillities...err...uh games, that is, sounded pretty cool.  I just do it for a hobby now, but after high school I plan on going into a career in it.  I have always liked a nice challenge and programming does that for me.  Plus, its neat to make the computer do what you tell it to.   ;  programming is like mathematical lego.I was good at maths and i like lego.Therefore i like programming.   