Customer Reviews

Beginning Programming All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wrote some programs for my boss over 25 years ago in Basic for a hand held Radio Shack Device. The program produced a Productivity Number that was completely proprietary to the company. The formula was so complex and esothat my boss had to compute half of it and then refer to a table of 1000 items to find a approximation of the result to compute the second half of the formula. Later I did some simple programs in Visual Basic for DOS that my office used. I consider myself a novice, but the little programming I did left me with a desire to learn more. My job was as an Operations Manager and had nothing todo with IT except as a user. I have read several books on programming and found them hard going because of my lack a formal educational background in computer science. I am retired now and still interested. I found this book in a Internet search. I have never read a book that explained programming as well (to me). This book is ideal for a novice like myself. The author does an amazing job of explaining complex terms and procedures that I find so accessible and easy to understand. I won't get into the debate about the inaccuracies that the gentleman in one review discusses. I do not have the expertise to discuss them. That said I want to thank the author. I plan on exploring any other book he writes. He has the traits of a great teacher, someone that can make the complex easy to understand and keep you interested.

I've been programming in a high level language for years without having a CS background and have been looking for a "principle of programming & languages" type of book to round up the self-education. There are expensive textbooks around but this inexpensive and gentle alternative fills the bill nicely!

This book explains simple programming very clearly for someone who last worked with BASIC in the 1980's. After borrowing a library copy, we wanted a copy to keep.

I am not a big fan of the Dummies Books or any "how to " book in which the author injects so called "humor" This book-however-written by a part time comedian no less- is outstanding! Why??? Because he can tell you in a few short sentences of plain concise English just what object oriented programming is.

This is no small easy feat! And I am dead serious. 99% of programming books are total incomprehensible gibberish for the non-programmer, for they are never written through the eyes of the reader for whom they are intended. One so called reviewer gave this fine volume two stars! He would rather have you read a book on the "Psychology of Programming"!!! The Silver Edition I should mention.

Beginning Programming is a very fine book for anyone wanting an overview of programming written in a clear concise style. This one previous sentence is high praise indeed for it is a rare occurrence.

This book is very informative and very well written. It's a great tool for anyone just starting out in programming who needs help understanding the basic concepts. It's easy to read and very thorough. The book ends with a crash course on quite a handful of today's relevant languages, so you can even use it to decide which language you want to learn first.

My only complaint is that the editing was pretty sloppy, but it wasn't enough to detract from the book as a whole.

This is a wonderful desk reference for beginners looking to understand programming. However this will not specifically teach you how to code. It points you the right direction but this is not the correct book for hands on demonstrations.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my computer-talented high-school junior daughter who is enrolled in computer science classes at her school. I don't know enough about the subject matter to review that side, however, as a gift, it has 7 complete 'Dummies' books in 1 volume, looks to be good quality and based on the other 'content based' reviews, is an excellent resource. It certainly seemed worth what I paid for it and I'm sure she'll use it as she progresses through her computer studies!

After reading this book, I knew that I had learned a lot, but I didn't realize how much I learned until I was ready to start learning a specific computer language. When I was done, I understood the basics of lists, sorting, and data structures. I understood what computer languages are out there, what development tools are, what factors to consider as I'm designing a computer program idea, and how encryption works. I could go on and on, but I will end this section by saying that I felt like I had completed a college level course in "Introductory to Programming."

This book gave me a solid foundation of all things computer related. There were several chapters that seemed to be redundant, but it may be because I was learning the information so well that I could easily recognize it again when I saw it. Because this is a reference book and not necessarily meant to be read cover-to-cover, I guess it had to have the repetitive information for those who pick it up and start reading in the middle.

Excellent book for beginners! Great study aid for programming students. Seller awesome. Shipped right away! Thank you! This book saved my life in understanding info I needed to understand better for my college course.

A nicely done review of programming for beginners. Could have used a summary of the keyword syntax of the various languages reviewed. At times, very difficult to remember the meaning of a particular keyword (such as 'DIM', etc.): repetition of the definition every so often might have been helpful. Has the usual Kindle problem with tables and pictures (often illegible). Overall a good book for the novice.