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It was 1969 and I was 13.
The language was called "Minitran" and it was Fortran without format statements. A bent paperclip was used to punch out little rectangles on standard 80 column IBM cards which has been pre-perforated.
The turn around time was 1 week (the schoolteacher had to drive to a University, drop it off, and return a few days later to pick up the output). If there was a compile time error, it stopped compiling on the first error, so you just got "illegal statement - line 7" on the printout.
That is a very, very slow way to learn to program.
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11 if I recall correctly, vb6
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I was 13 years old, back in 1973 (BASIC). However, I was 15 years before I actually could run my code - I didn't have access to any computer or even programable calculator before 1975.
- But I miss those days...
/ Normann Aa. Nielsen
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I think about 12 or 13. started with writing codes in basic on a BBC Micro with 64KB internal memory. still writing codes now but for most of latest computers/servers/devices on planet earth, connected to each other. 
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In '65 I was in a scout explorer group in East Texas.
The guys at GE allowed us to use their time share terminal in the evenings.
We could each do a short (3 - lines) program and feed the teletype by punch tape.
It was so much more fun then fixing TVs that it became my new hobby.
Twenty years later it was my career.
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12 years old I guess, in 2000.
Started with C, and quickly moved to C++.
I picked up C# 5 years later because I bought a book called "C# professional", sure it was talking about C++.
Best error I've made in my life.
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Around 12 years old (31 years ago now!) on a Sinclair ZX-81. Those were the days, when you bought a computer that came with a programming manual!
Before that I used to go into Laskys after school (a UK hi-fi/computer store back in the early 80s) and do the classic stuff like this on the various computers they had on display:-
10 PRINT "ANDREW"
20 GOTO 10
I was often asked to leave the store.
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I was somewhere between 6 and 8 when I wrote my first line of BASIC. To be fair it was really my dad telling me what to type, but it wasn't long before I didn't need any help.
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Prior to conception, I was a Bi-located, dual conciousness entity, known as Gametes.
I wrote code by telekinetically moving slabs of stone on Salisbury plain.
The program is still running.
Sorry, but I could see this getting silly and competive, so I thought I'd go for the prize for most outlandish claim.
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I have punched cards, sys ops and project managers and feel like that I have been doing this since the beginning of time.
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read." Frank Zappa 1980
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I was 13 years old and it was on a Commodore PET 3032 enhanced Basic 4.0... I miss those days.
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16 in 1973; FORTRAN IV on punch cards, in a high-school-level class taught at the community college. Finding prime numbers, finding the zeros of polynomials, computing the minimum number of coins to equal some number of cents -- as hundredths of a dollar $0.01 -- and learning about the imperfection of REAL numbers: SHOCKING!
My typing skills were non-existent, and it took me a looong time to plonk out a 30-card stack, after having already composed everything on a coding sheet. No backspace key on a key punch.
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To be fair, it should be also noted the birth date ... when I was 7 or 12 home computer didn't existed ...
However I wrote my first functioning programs on a ZX Spectrum in 1982, at the age of 16.
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22.
But that was 43 years ago. I'd never seen a computer before I was 21.
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I was 18 (1976) and using a HP25 (programmable calculator: HP25).
Dirk Verheijke
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In 1979, at a Radio Shack store. It was
10 print "hello";
20 goto 10
I was 11. My dad had been to a BASIC programming class for work, and he showed me what to do.
--Geoff
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14 in 1973 - 300 baud dialup on an ASR-33 to a HP-2000C timeshare refrigerator. Integer basic. 8K ram with 100K of personal storage (not including punched paper tape!) I still have my copy of Star Trek on blue tape!
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14, 1968, IBM 1620, Fortran-IId
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I was 12. The language was BASIC and the system was a good old Honeywell H1642 time sharing system. We had limited storage so we saved our code using paper tape from an ASR-33 teletype. We were also able to use a Honeywell 316 mini-computer by installing the BASIC interpreter. How did we load it? By going to the H316's front panel and entering the "key in loader" instructions in binary using the rocker switches. The interpreter was a large spool of paper tape.
Man we thought we were so cool.
I graduated to Fortran and assembly after that (anyone remember DAP?)
Allan Dianic
Sr. Systems Engineer
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We were cool... then. now we're just old.
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25; mainframe in college (course of study: math). That was 31 years ago ...
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10. TI-Basic on a TI-99/4A back in 1981. Still miss it.
And, as much as I would like to say 'I have been coding since I was 10', I actually took a break from 1984-98 to pursue sound engineering. Worked creating music on a Mac during the 90's and then came back to programming in 1998. Miss the music, too.
Memories...
I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone - Bjarne Stroustrup
The world is going to laugh at you anyway, might as well crack the 1st joke!
My code has no bugs, it runs exactly as it was written.
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15, in 1969. I was a Grade 11 high school student.
Language was FORTRAN IV using the WATFOR compiler, machine was an IBM 360/50 mainframe at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
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