R

I was maybe 10 when I first hear of programming and decided that it would be a good thing to know how to do, and perhaps 16 when I first decided I would learn. I've been meaning to ever since then, and frequently aware that my work would be faster, more reliable and more repeatable if I just knew some programming. Somehow I never found the combination of time, motivation and opportunity until now. I've spent most of the last week laboriously writing a simple program in R. It is clunky and inelegant, it doesn't yet do everything I want it to, and what it does it does a bit slowly. But it does what is intended, produces useful answers and I wrote it myself. Well, with occasional help from colleagues. Time to check it off the "to do eventually" list. Given another several months of this I may develop a useful skill.