Almost ten years here, and eight of those spent in college doing so. Which makes me feel like I’ve been put at a disadvantage!
I started out with PHP, writing stuff for a rather crappy text-based RPG online.
Move into Action Script, in '04, which was a little fun!
And now so much Java that I feel ruined for other languages. And even ruined for Java, as a lot of the Big-O notation stuff seems counter intuitive with it. Like that conversation about LinkedLists VS ArrayLists.
Kno the basics they say 
I also did some Assembler, bur args… not again^^°
arround 25 years, starting by doing my first game on a CPC 464 in basic, than going on 8086 assembly for my first 3d engine, and after turbo pascal, and after …, and after…, and… finally java!
I am still nostalgic for that time, that was really really cool with a lot of things to discover, different computers, different languages, concurrency, games was a little crappy but imagination and coverage of games was doing all the stuffs, this was really cool
I applaud it, Pascal is an excellent language to roll into programming IMO. certainly helped me to switch from hating programming to adoring programming 
But it wasn’t only the language, it was when I saw a friend programming games using it (and assembly) that I turned into a believer Segmented memory of 64k blocks and VGA 320*200 video mode ftw!
Actually now I come to think of it Pascal was the first language I was exposed to as well. It was quite an odd step backwards going to BASIC.
I do rather pity newbies having to navigate their way through Java as a first language though, it is rather complex.
Cas
Ah well, it was okay. The only thing which sucked was the damn 64 KB cap. I had to shrink my first programm by reducing the length of the code xD (The programm was an english trainer, but it did not helped me much, it also included minigames to learn the language, snake eating english letters and stuff… good old times)
I started to program when this cute little ZX Spectrum 48K was released, this was in 1982 IIRC. Which means I too am programming now for about 30 years. Still I’m not very bright. But older!
And I’ve to say that programming these little home computers (first Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum, then Amstrad’s CPC, then later Acorn’s Archimedes) was the best computer time ever for me. Not because back then it was just a hobby and today it’s more of a profession, but because back then it was incredible fun to work in a restricted hardware and software “frame”.
Today, when nearly everything goes concerning hardware and software, developer’s tend to “get lost in … infinity” what’s concerning games. I mean, when I played Cholo for example, I was there in these dark vector towns with these frightening robots… because imagination filled all the gaps which the little 8bit hardware and software left plenty of, whilst today you see everything and your imagination has hardly any room to unfold (it’s like with black-white Hitchcock movies which always use the audience’s imagination).
Of course the Cholo remake on today’s computers is pretty cool, too, because often “less is more” – and that’s why I just love Java Gaming with you retro inspired Java developers. (So many of these 4 K and bigger Java games are really fun.)
Of course programming in Java is one of the most comfortable and effective things I can imagine because I really can concentrate on the task which needs to be solved. Still, as Cas says, it’s a good thing when you didn’t start with a complex object orientated computer language… (is there anything cooler than pure ARM assembler, for example? Hardly, hehe!)
We at Puppygames subscribe to the restricted platform point of view, without the restrictions 
We have the ability now to arbitrarily set our own restrictions, and then work within them - the best of both worlds!
Cas
You and your games came actually to my mind, when I posted.
Congratulations to you and your success in putting these two worlds together! That’s a very rare skill these days, I think.
Since AppleSoft BASIC on an Apple ][ c+ in the days of yore.
I began programming at almost 6 years old at school (Basic). I had no money to buy a computer, my family is quite poor. I began programming a lot at about 15 when I bought a scientific pocket calculator (HP 48 GX). I suffer from eyestrain and intellectual overtiredness, my headaches become more and more frequent. I spend at least 12 hours a day in front of computer screens, mostly in programming. I had never imagined that it could become a problem. Maybe I should have a rest.
Marathon coding sessions aren’t that productive. You spend six hours coding, three hours making boneheaded mistakes because you’re worn out, and another three trying to fix those mistakes and probably introducing more.
A year overall, I’m still learning tonnes and I’m reading replies from people with 10-30 with similar indications. Coding is like a spoken language, you can never fully master it and you will always be learning. Even great authors like Shakespeare and Aldeous Huxley never fully grasped their language, which is the same sort of thing for coding.
I don’t really have the choice. I program about 8 hours a day at work. If I decided to program less, I would be forced to give up all open source projects 
However, I admit it is sometimes counterproductive, it would be worse if I spent much time at work.
I work 8 hours too, but hell. Everyone knows it’s bad to work on code this long without a break :o I make pause every 1 -2 hours and watch a video on Youtube or just browse the internet. Okay to be honest, it’s just an intership but the other guys here do the same.
But I can understand what you mean. I have lose 3 hours every day just to get home or to work 
And if I’m home I’m really tired but also what to do some coding on my projects.
You’re lucky. During my internship in a public administration, I discovered that the automatic clocking (in and off) system had been “modified” to avoid tacking into account all work hours after 6 o’clock… I make a pause at midday, I eat in 3 minutes. The other employees do like you, they make a pause every 2 hours to smoke or have a drink.
If you want to keep a clear head, you should take a longer break than that. You’re setting yourself up for a burnout.
I’ve begun to take a short break every 30 minutes now that I’ve been doing the programming trick for more than 10 years. That is because I take iterative development to the maximum, to me that is the only stable development process available. You can attempt to go on a coding rampage and write out code like you’re billed by the line, but in those moments you don’t give yourself time to reflect on that oh so important question: is this really a good idea?
It didn’t happen while I was typing this piece of text, but there have been plenty of moments where taking a step back and waiting for things to sink in actually did help me to steer into the proper direction sooner rather than later The brain is weird, sometimes it needs to be distracted to get it to focus.
I spent a year on Revenge of the Titans doing an 8 hour day at Sony, then I’d come back and put in about 6 hours on the game, every night. And all weekend. I have to say, it nearly killed me and I am quite amazed at the incredible patience of my girlfriend because she believed in what I was doing (and this after seeing Droid Assault tank, too).
Cas