age of Python programmers

[Lucas Raab]

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

[Jarek Zgoda]

Lucas Raab <py*********@hotmail.com> pisze:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

Now it's 33 and still ticks.

--
Jarek Zgoda
http://jpa.berlios.de/

[Dave Benjamin]

In article <jQ****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.n et>, Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

I'm 25. Been using Python for about 3 years. I started programming in BASIC
on a Commodore 64 when I was about 8 years old.

--
.:[ dave benjamin: ramen/[sp00] -:- spoomusic.com -:- ramenfest.com ]:.
"talking about music is like dancing about architecture."

[Christian von Essen]

I'm 18 years old

[Reinhold Birkenfeld]

Gerrit Muller wrote:

Most Python programmers I know are 40+. I am myself 47 (born in december
1956).

regards Gerrit

P.S.,

how many teeners are still programming? Most teeners I know build
websites, but they don't program.

I certainly wouldn't call these shockingly horrible bunches of IE-tags
thrown together with the intention of being regarded as "cool" a "website".

Reinhold, rant rant

--
Wenn eine Linuxdistribution so wenig brauchbare Software wie Windows
mitbrächte, wäre das bedauerlich. Was bei Windows der Umfang eines
"kompletten Betriebssystems" ist, nennt man bei Linux eine Rescuedisk.
-- David Kastrup in de.comp.os.unix.linux.misc

[Byron]

28 years old. I have been using Python for one year. Mostly work with
VB6, but now have a new favorite.

Byron
---

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

[R Baumann]

"Lucas Raab" <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:jQ****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthli nk.net...

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

I celebrate the 17th anniversary of my 39th birthday in September. ;-)

Started programming in the US Air Force when I was 27. Assembler on a
Univac 1050-II.

Ruben

[Jeff Shannon]

I'm 35, and have been programming off and on (more off than on) since I
was about 11.

First program was in Basic on a TRS-80, quickly moved on to Apple //e;
didn't program at all in high school, took a "programming for engineers"
course in college (Basic & Fortran), then after college decided to teach
myself C. Another break of some years before I bought myself a (used)
386 PC, and resumed dabbling in C, then C++. At this point (about 8
years ago) I became hooked, and started devouring all the programming
and software engineering/design books I could get from the library.
Once my job started including coding (mostly [Pick] Basic & UHL, a
proprietary [and horribly ugly & evil] scripting language), I decided to
pick up Python (based largely on a Dr. Dobbs Journal Programmer of the
Year award to Gvr, and the article about him and Python they published
then) and never want to look back. :)

Jeff Shannon
Technician/Programmer
Credit International

[Cousin Stanley]

On 2004-08-18, Lucas Raab <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

| One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age
| of a Python programmer ??
|
| What age groups use Python ??
|
| Something to think about....

import time

tup_lt = time.localtime()

now_yr = tup_lt[ 0 ]
now_mo = tup_lt[ 1 ]
now_da = tup_lt[ 2 ]

dob_yr = 1946
dob_mo = 8
dob_da = 9

dy = now_yr - dob_yr
dm = now_mo - dob_mo
dd = now_da - dob_da

print '\n %d Years .... %d Months .... %d Days .... Old \n' % ( dy , dm , dd )
58 Years .... 0 Months .... 9 Days .... Old

--
Cousin Stanley
Human Being
Phoenix, Arizona

[Christopher T King]

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004, Jeff Shannon wrote:

quickly moved on to Apple //e;

<3 the Apple //e. My dad taught me how to program in BASIC on it when I
was 6. The Beagle Bros. were like gods to me (anyone else remember
them?). Would that Python could run on a //e ;)

[VSOFTSMITH]

age 62
yes it is harder, less willing to "waste"
time on unnecessary complexity
but i know what questions to ask so it is a lot of fun

[Ville Vainio]

27 years, 4 of them with awareness of how much the other languages I
have/had to work with suck.

BTW, even though usenet might not really scale all that well for this
kind of thread, it's been delightful to see how so many are still
actively hacking at a respectable age. It really sets an example for
us younger ones, some of whom are possibly worried about how to
preserve the energy level of youth and whether they can still hack it
when they "grow up".

I'm also optimistic about retiring with Python, because *everyone* is
going to retire with Python in 2044 :-).

--
Ville Vainio http://tinyurl.com/2prnb

[Jorge Godoy]

Christos "TZOTZIOY" Georgiou <tz**@sil-tec.gr> writes:

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 08:34:08 -0400, rumours say that Jeremy Jones
<za******@bellsouth.net> might have written:

Is this a marketing survey?

age: 31
marital status: married - have 1 wife
parental status: 2 children
canine status: have 1 dog
feline status: 1 cat
employment status: (very) thankfully have a (good) job
automobile status: 2 cars
sanity status: nearly none

You forgot to give us address and credit card details. Thanks in
advance for your reply.

To save time, we also accept your computer's login and password. We can
get all the details needed without bothering you. ;-)

--
Godoy. <go***@ieee.org>

[Istvan Albert]

32, perl and java refugee

[Jorge Godoy]

"Adonis" <ad*****@DELETETHISTEXTearthlink.net> writes:

23

I'm 25...

--
Godoy. <go***@ieee.org>

[Andrea Griffini]

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 12:20:31 GMT, "Lucas Raab"
<py*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

38.

Started around 15 with assembler (6502)

I'm very new to python, but so far I really like it.

Andrea

[Berthold Höllmann]

Cousin Stanley <co***********@hotmail.com> writes:

On 2004-08-18, Lucas Raab <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

| One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age
| of a Python programmer ??
|
| What age groups use Python ??
|
| Something to think about....

import time

tup_lt = time.localtime()

now_yr = tup_lt[ 0 ]
now_mo = tup_lt[ 1 ]
now_da = tup_lt[ 2 ]

dob_yr = 1946
dob_mo = 8
dob_da = 9

dy = now_yr - dob_yr
dm = now_mo - dob_mo
dd = now_da - dob_da

print '\n %d Years .... %d Months .... %d Days .... Old \n' % ( dy , dm , dd )
58 Years .... 0 Months .... 9 Days .... Old

For me it's

....

dob_yr = 1966
dob_mo = 8
dob_da = 18 .... print '\n %d Years .... %d Months .... %d Days .... Old \n' % ( dy , dm , dd )
38 Years .... 0 Months .... 0 Days .... Old

Programming since more than 20 Years. UCSD Pascal on Apple //e and
//c, FORTRAN, C, C++ and Python since more than 76 Years.

Regards
Berthold
--
bh***@web.de / http://starship.python.net/crew/bhoel/

[Phil Frost]

I work in a python company of 9 where the average age is probably 25.
I've been programming since I was 10 or so, first playing with basic on
a commodore 64 (old hardware by then) and then learning ia32 assembly and
working my way to higher level languages.

I never really thought programming was unpopular among young people, but
now that I think about it, the only person I've met in real life that
was a young programmer lives 1500km away, and we met on the internet, of
course.

Furthermore, it seems now the way to become a programmer is to learn VB
and write crude programs through high school, then go to college and
learn Java, then find a job in web development. I wonder what portion of
programmers these days have a real understanding of how the hardware
they manipulate works? From this thread so far it seems like such
knowledge is more common among Python programmers, which I find odd
since Python isn't exactly a low level language. Perhaps it's because no
one learns Python until becoming frustrated with 10 other languages?

On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 09:41:34PM +0200, Reinhold Birkenfeld wrote:

Gerrit Muller wrote:

Most Python programmers I know are 40+. I am myself 47 (born in december
1956).

regards Gerrit

P.S.,

how many teeners are still programming? Most teeners I know build
websites, but they don't program.

I certainly wouldn't call these shockingly horrible bunches of IE-tags
thrown together with the intention of being regarded as "cool" a "website".

Reinhold, rant rant

[Jack Diederich]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 05:11:20PM -0400, Phil Frost wrote:

I wonder what portion of
programmers these days have a real understanding of how the hardware
they manipulate works? From this thread so far it seems like such
knowledge is more common among Python programmers, which I find odd
since Python isn't exactly a low level language. Perhaps it's because no
one learns Python until becoming frustrated with 10 other languages?

Or because the average age so far is well over 30; back then assembly was
de rigueur and not much before that and you are physically flipping bits
with a +12v probe (if you were lucky there was eight lights above the
eight metal contacts).

Until recently "computer science" was spelled "electrical engineering" and
arguably before that "mechanical engineering".

-Jack

[Aahz]

In article <41**************@chamonix.reportlab.co.uk>,
Robin Becker <ro***@reportlab.com> wrote:

[...]

Not too many late-30s, I guess. I've been programming Python for six
years, started at nine years old with BASIC.
--
Aahz (aa**@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"To me vi is Zen. To use vi is to practice zen. Every command is a
koan. Profound to the user, unintelligible to the uninitiated. You
discover truth everytime you use it." --*****@lion.austin.ibm.com

[Arthur Rambo]

The answer to the question about the Universe and Everything
incremented by one.

43

Started programming at 15 with the TI-59 (Texas Instruments), than
Basic on the TRS-80, Pascal on the Apple II-e and IBM PC, Lisp on the
Macintosh, and finally *Python* (the best language I've ever seen for
the kind of things I'm doing) on the IBM PC.

"Lucas Raab" <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<jQ****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthl ink.net>...

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

[Beeyah]

"Lucas Raab" <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<jQ****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthl ink.net>...

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

I'm only fifteen, having done the programming thing for a little over
two years now. Python is a new development for me; I've been using it
in the past year, and plan to stick with it :)

[Aahz]

In article <du*************@lehtori.cc.tut.fi>,
Ville Vainio <vi***@spammers.com> wrote:

I'm also optimistic about retiring with Python, because *everyone* is
going to retire with Python in 2044 :-).

2038
--
Aahz (aa**@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"To me vi is Zen. To use vi is to practice zen. Every command is a
koan. Profound to the user, unintelligible to the uninitiated. You
discover truth everytime you use it." --*****@lion.austin.ibm.com

[Robey Holderith]

Not yet, but our day will come.

[Jarek Zgoda]

Aahz <aa**@pythoncraft.com> pisze:

I'm also optimistic about retiring with Python, because *everyone* is
going to retire with Python in 2044 :-).

2038

2036

--
Jarek Zgoda
http://jpa.berlios.de/

[Eli Stevens (WG.c)]

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?

25 here, Python newbie (less than a year, I think).

I'm sad that nobody else in this thread has spoken in hushed, reverent
tones about my gateway drug, LogoWriter. I was 10 when my fifth grade
math class went to the school computer lab and made the turtle crawl
around the screen. From there, QBasic, C++, C-because-school-made-me,
Java-because-work-made-me, Python-to-save-me. ;)

Handy tip: if you were anything like me, _don't_ go back and try to read
your old code. I had variable names like "qwer" "qwert" and "qwerty",
alongside classics like "a", "b" and "c."

*Shudder*
Eli

[Aahz]

In article <cg**********@atlantis.news.tpi.pl>,
Jarek Zgoda <jz****@gazeta.usun.pl> wrote:

Aahz <aa**@pythoncraft.com> pisze:

I'm also optimistic about retiring with Python, because *everyone* is
going to retire with Python in 2044 :-).

2038

2036

What's special about 2036?

(2038-1-19 is the 32-bit Unix date rollover point.)
--
Aahz (aa**@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"To me vi is Zen. To use vi is to practice zen. Every command is a
koan. Profound to the user, unintelligible to the uninitiated. You
discover truth everytime you use it." --*****@lion.austin.ibm.com

[richard]

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

32, been using it for a decade.
Richard

[Lucas Raab]

Pardon me while I run away from your cane!!

"Skip Montanaro" <sk**@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:ma**************************************@pyth on.org...

Christopher> I'm 19. The only other Python programmer I know personally Christopher> is 21. Congrats on discovering Python at 14; back then I
Christopher> thought VB was a godsend. ;)

Whippersnapper... At 14 I would have thought a computer was a godsend. ;-)
(I'm 50, btw.)

Skip

[Lucas Raab]

Yeah, I did a non-closable window number on a friend on mine. Needless to
say he was quite annoyed.

"Leif K-Brooks" <eu*****@ecritters.biz> wrote in message
news:2o************@uni-berlin.de...

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

I'm 13, I'll be 14 in 89 days. I started doing somewhat real programming
at around 11; I had done silly things in a VB-like language for Mac OS
before then, mostly "viruses" that displayed a full-screen window with
no close button, but hadn't written any code.

[Lucas Raab]

Quite a few of Python's community member's is 45+. That sort of surprised
me. But don't get the impression that I thought everybody here was in their
20's and 30's.

"Ville Vainio" <vi***@spammers.com> wrote in message
news:du*************@lehtori.cc.tut.fi...

27 years, 4 of them with awareness of how much the other languages I
have/had to work with suck.

BTW, even though usenet might not really scale all that well for this
kind of thread, it's been delightful to see how so many are still
actively hacking at a respectable age. It really sets an example for
us younger ones, some of whom are possibly worried about how to
preserve the energy level of youth and whether they can still hack it
when they "grow up".

I'm also optimistic about retiring with Python, because *everyone* is
going to retire with Python in 2044 :-).

--
Ville Vainio http://tinyurl.com/2prnb

[Lucas Raab]

Somebody should set up a website with a poll-type thing to enter your age
and see other peoples ages.

"Lucas Raab" <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:jQ****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthli nk.net...

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

[Peter Hansen]

Phil Frost wrote:

I never really thought programming was unpopular among young people, but
now that I think about it, the only person I've met in real life that
was a young programmer lives 1500km away, and we met on the internet, of
course.

Most of the people with whom I went to grade school and high
school didn't know any programmers either. (And I was a programmer
at the time.)

There's a reason the stereotypical geek is considered antisocial...

-Peter

[Peter Hansen]

Aahz wrote:

In article <41**************@chamonix.reportlab.co.uk>,
Robin Becker <ro***@reportlab.com> wrote:

[...]

Not too many late-30s, I guess. I've been programming Python for six
years, started at nine years old with BASIC.

Hi Aahz... I'll keep you company there.

Started with APL, technically, but didn't have a clue what I
was doing. Around eleven years old I think. Then BASIC etc.
Python for about five years, but greatly saddened it wasn't
for much longer (because of all the time wasted, especially
on Java and C++).

-Peter

[Marcos Eimil Pardo]

28 years old, and getting more and more surprised with python, not only
a elegant, expressive, etc, etc. language, also useful as social life
maker ;D.

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

[Daniel Harding]

"Lucas Raab" <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<jQ****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthl ink.net>...

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

25 here. Started programming at 13 with HyperCard on a Mac SE. Been
through many languages since then and though the bulk of my employment
is currently in C++, I use Python whenever I can for side projects and
personal programming ever since I started digging into it about a year
and a half ago.

[Rod Haper]

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

Just turned 57 here and still coding strong although I've started to
think of birthdays not in terms of a count up but rather as a count down
towards retirement and freedom. I started programming back in 1966 on a
Burroughs B5500 using ALGOL 60. A truly wonderful machine and
programming language - far ahead of their time. I've always considered
myself lucky to have started with a block structured language like ALGOL
because of the good programming habits it engendered. I've worked with
a lot of machines, languages, code and applications since those heady
young days but for shear productivity nothing beats Python ... and
besides it's just plain fun to use. I've been using Python for over
eight years now.

--
Rod

[Robin Becker]

Mark Jackson wrote:

Robin Becker <ro***@reportlab.com> writes:

Marius Bernklev wrote:

24. (anyone keeping count?)

It's raining so I can't go home

Martin Jackson 55

Unless there's an elderly Martin out there as well, this should be
"Mark."

whoops

--
Robin Becker

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

Well, I'm 37, but I may be some special case since I started programming
at 32... (well, I did some bits of scripting before that but nothing
serious, just a few lines of Hypertalk and VBScript...). So I'm not so
young, but still a young programmer !-)

[Alexandre Fayolle]

Hi,

Age 30. Started programming at 15 on an Atari 520STe, using GFA Basic...
Been full time Python programmer for 4 years.

--
Alexandre Fayolle LOGILAB, Paris (France).
http://www.logilab.com http://www.logilab.fr http://www.logilab.org

[Peter Hickman]

Berthold Höllmann wrote:

Programming since more than 20 Years. UCSD Pascal on Apple //e and
//c, FORTRAN, C, C++ and Python since more than 76 Years.

UCSD Pascal, ah that is a memory. The reason I never thought Java was such a big
deal was my exposure to UCSD, a whole OS as a VM (if my memory serves)!

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

"Reinhold Birkenfeld" <re************************@wolke7.net> wrote in
message news:2o************@uni-berlin.de...

I certainly wouldn't call these shockingly horrible bunches of IE-tags
thrown together with the intention of being regarded as "cool" a

"website".

They are retro-sites; just like 70's apparel became fashion again, so will
those sites!!

My 10 year-old daughter should have a future well set out in web design
given her liking of Purple backgrounds enriched with Pink, Yellow and Green
text - sometimes adorned with the "Blink" attribute!

muahahahahahhaaa

[Robin Becker]

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

so far with a count of 74 the average is 35.72
--
Robin Becker

[Andrew Durdin]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 10:26:36 +0100, Robin Becker <ro***@reportlab.com> wrote:

so far with a count of 74 the average is 35.72

Well, let me lower that just a tad: I'm 24.

[Max M]

Robin Becker wrote:

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

so far with a count of 74 the average is 35.72

Up that a nudge with me: 39

regards Max M

[Oliver Fromme]

Lucas Raab <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

I'm 00100001b (or 021h ... or if you prefer decimal, it's
33 years). Although I feel more like 27, which is the age
of my GF. :-)

First learned to program in BASIC on an old Wang computer
(with magnetic ring core memory, no "modern" RAM chips) and
on a Commodore PET2001. I was 12 back then, I think. Then
went through various other languages (including assembly on
65xx, 68xxx and x86), and I think that all of them suck,
especially Perl and Java.

As a matter of fact, I also think that Python sucks, but it
sucks a lot less than all the others.

Regards
Oliver

--
Oliver Fromme, Konrad-Celtis-Str. 72, 81369 Munich, Germany

``All that we see or seem is just a dream within a dream.''
(E. A. Poe)

[Peter Maas]

Aahz schrieb:

Ville Vainio <vi***@spammers.com> wrote:

I'm also optimistic about retiring with Python, because *everyone* is
going to retire with Python in 2044 :-).

2038

It took slightly more than a decade to get rid of 16bit machines. I
don't think that anybody will use 32bit in more than 30 years. 64bit
rollover point is in 292,277,026,596. That really ought to be enough
for everybody :)

Mit freundlichen Gruessen,

Peter Maas

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Maas, M+R Infosysteme, D-52070 Aachen, Tel [phone]
E-mail 'cGV0ZXIubWFhc0BtcGx1c3IuZGU=\n'.decode('base64')
-------------------------------------------------------------------

[Nicolas Évrard]

* Oliver Fromme [13:32 19/08/04 CEST]:

Lucas Raab <py*********@hotmail.com> wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....

I'm 00100001b (or 021h ... or if you prefer decimal, it's
33 years). Although I feel more like 27, which is the age
of my GF. :-)

Well if everybody feels like the age of his GF/BF, I'm 75 although I'm
only 27.

--
(°> Nicolas Évrard
/ ) Liège - Belgique
^^

[Ganesan R]

>>>>> "Max" == Max M <ma**@mxm.dk> writes:

Robin Becker wrote:

Lucas Raab wrote:

One thing I've always kind of wondered is what is the average age of a
Python programmer?? What age groups use Python?? Something to think
about....
so far with a count of 74 the average is 35.72

Up that a nudge with me: 39

Down a nudge with me :-). I am 32. Started with Basic on Spectrum 48K and a
IBM PC Clone. Some Z80 assembly programming on the Spectrum. Then Fortran,
Pascal and even (gasp!) COBOL. Moved on to C, C++ and Shell scripting. Found
Perl along the way, was delighted with it. Did a bit of programming in
Java. Dabbled occasionally in Tcl and recently C#. Found Python a couple of
years back. Nowadays Python has mostly replaced Perl for my scripting needs,
though I still fallback to plain old shell scripting occasionally.
Ganesan

[vronskij]

I am 25. 2 years flirting with Python. Started programming when I was
about
8 years old. Basic and Assemblear. High school Pascal. University C.
Now C++ and Python.

Teenage programmers fading away. I think that you are at the height of
your skills in 30's.

jan bodnar

[Stephen Ferg]

> Finally, someone in my cohort :-). 52.

I'm 58.

Started programming in 1979 -- 25 years ago. Cut my teeth on Pl/I.
Later COBOL, Pascal, Basic, Java. For a while I liked REXX very much,
but it just ran out of steam.

Been programming in Python for about 4 years.

Perhaps we have a two-hump demographic: youngsters in teens and
twenties, and old farts in 50's.