Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming (3rd Edition) [Paperback]

Greg Perry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0789729059 | ISBN-13: 978-0789729057 | Edition: 3

No prior programming experience necessary!

Absolute Beginner¿s Guide to Programming helps readers understand what programming really is. Readers not only get an overview of the job of programming, but also learn which specific skills are needed for certain jobs. Coverage includes how a computer interprets a program¿s instructions with insight into what goes on "under the hood" when a computer runs a program, how programming can and does relate to the Internet and the skills required for adding security to programs, and compiled versus interpreted languages like JavaScript and HTML. Absolute Beginner¿s Guide to Programming offers "hands on" programming for the "absolute beginner". Though there are hundreds of books for beginners about specific languages, this is the only book that takes today's programming environments and explains why each is important and where each works best.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

No prior programming experience necessary!

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming helps readers understand what programming really is. Readers not only get an overview of the job of programming, but also learn which specific skills are needed for certain jobs.Coverage includes how a computer interprets a program's instructions with insight into what goes on "under the hood" when a computer runs a program, how programming can and does relate to the Internet and the skills required for adding security to programs, and compiled versus interpreted languages like JavaScript and HTML. Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming offers "hands on" programming for the "absolute beginner". Though there are hundreds of books for beginners about specific languages, this is the only book that takes today's programming environments and explains why each is important and where each works best.

About the Author

Greg Perry has personally taught thousands of people how to program in the classroom and lectures, as well as impacted the computer world through the sale of more than two million computer books internationally.

He has been a programmer and trainer for the past 20 years. He received an undergraduate degree in computer science, followed by a master's degree in corporate finance. After working as a supervisor of financial systems for a Fortune 500 company, he turned to teaching at the college level, where he remained until he began to write full-time and lecture at programming conferences.

Some of his other book titles include Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days, C by Example, and several books in the 24 Hours series, including Sams Teach Yourself PCs in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself Office in 24 Hours, and Sams Teach Yourself Windows Millennium in 24 Hours. He has also written articles for several magazines, including PC World and Data Training. He is fluent in several computer languages and speaks a little Italian as well.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Que; 3 edition (November 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789729059
• ISBN-13: 978-0789729057
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,388,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy without having Visual Basic, December 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book requires visual basic. So if you thought all you had to do to start programming today think again. Trying to read this book without following along in visual basic was way to confusing. So if you want to buy this book to learn programming I would also recommend you buy Microsoft's Visual Basic. You can find the current price at microsoft.com. Other wise I would recommend to a true absolute beginner buying Wallace Wang's "Beginning Programming for Dummies" Try to keep in mind you will want the most recent edition because things in the languages change with each version.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I Wish I Had Known, March 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

The book lives up to its title in terms of being an introductory guide to programming, but what I didn't know was I had to have the specific program "Visual Basic" as well to get beyond chapter five. This revelation left the remaining 19 chapters of the book of no value to me at all. I do have "Visual Basic.Net", but it's way too much of a process to try to convert from one program to another and learn how they work at the same time.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a good guide at all...., October 5, 2003

By 

Timothy R. Mcgrath (Little Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book dives into various programming languages which is helpful - but does not provide clear examples or suggest how you can write basic programs. Even using Visual Studio .Net I struggled to get the code in this book to generate a working program. I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn to write programs - there are much better books on the various languages. I was very disappointed by this book and have already retired it.