Beginning Programming (Wrox Beginning Guides) [Paperback]

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes (Author), Kathie Kingsley-Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0764584065 | ISBN-13: 978-0764584060 | Edition: 1

• Programming allows developers to create a sequence of instructions that enable computers to perform certain functions and tasks
• Offering the basic best practices and skills for novice programmers, this book helps readers gain new skills for writing programs and developing applications
• Teaches programming using C++ and explores scripting with JavaScript and VBScript, which are all free and don't require the reader to purchase any software
• Includes programming projects and real-world code examples that can be modified and expanded upon

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A welcome addition to Wrox’s Beginning series and a good all-round introduction to programming for novices.” (Publishing News, 25th March 2005)

From the Back Cover

A common misconception about programming is that it can only be done on a professional level by someone with years of experience. This book proves exactly the opposite and provides nonprogrammers with assistance in learning the programming basics that will enable them to eventually become professional developers or programming hobbyists.

Written for anyone who wants to learn to program but who doesn’t have a background in the field, this hands-on guide explains programming through numerous examples in a variety of languages, including C++, Java, VBScript, and JavaScript. All the tools and materials you need are either easily available on the Internet or already installed on your computer. By the time you finish the book, you will have a solid foundation for proficiency in programming computers to perform a diverse number of functions and tasks.

What you will learn from this book

• How computers read, store, and process code
• The various essential tools necessary to become an effective programmer
• Key concepts in programming that are consistent from one programming language to another
• How to create, modify, and delete files and folders
• Best techniques for making your applications easy to use
• How text editors, compilers, and other utilities make coding easier

Who this books is for

This book is for novices who want to learn to program but have little or no programming knowledge or experience.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 479 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764584065
• ISBN-13: 978-0764584060
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #373,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My name is Adrian W Kingsley-Hughes. I am a technical consultant and author based in the UK. I have been around (and inside, on top of and beneath) computers for coming on two decades.
I live in the UK with my wife Kathie (who is also an author) and my fantastic children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Beginners Book, April 14, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning Programming (Wrox Beginning Guides) (Paperback)

When the first chapter of a book on programming is titles 'What Is Programming' you get a pretty good idea of the level of the book. Combine this with the title 'Beginning Programming' and you have a pretty good idea of what's it all about.

This book is also set up to allow you to get into programing cheaply. It programs its examples using C++, Java, VBScript and JavaScript (along with a few references to other languages). These languages are available free for downloading over the internet. You also do not need a big, super powerful computer to do programming. Indeed, most of my own programming is done on an old Pentium II - 400 MHz machine that I bought for $55 (well, to be truthful, I added another $15 in memory).

Finally, as the authors point out, after you learn one language you know enough about the general structure of programming to be readily able to move to another language. After a couple of weeks working with this book, you could move up to another language in probably a couple of days.

This is indeed the simple way to get started in programming. I wish I'd had it when I started forty something years ago.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Buggier than a porch light. Novice beware!, February 18, 2007

By 

Kit Thornton "Autodidactus Omnivorous" (Milton, WV United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beginning Programming (Wrox Beginning Guides) (Paperback)

This book is likely to frustrate true beginners. In attempting to work through the excercises, the C++ complier the authors recommend refused to compile the sample code. Two frustrating hours later pursuing solutions on the Borland web site, I managed to create two configuration files, edit my environmental variables, and finally get the code to compile. Such geek gymnastics are certainly beyond most "beginners," and are likely to cause them to give up the whole idea of learning to code.

Shame on Borland for providing a compiler that was apparently never beta tested on XP(!), and shame on Wrox for failing to provide adequate instructions. There are a few answers of varying quality and coherance on their forum, but you shouldn't have to resort to the forum to run the very first compiled program in the book.

If you aren't familiar with how a compiler works BEFORE reading this book, you are likely to run aground sometime around Chapter 7. Save your money.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good foundation, February 1, 2006

By 

A. Turner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning Programming (Wrox Beginning Guides) (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of Wrox. The first computer I ever had way back in 1997 was a Wrox book on HTML. It was clear, concise (-seriously concise-), and not filled with the usual garbage that most computer books are filled with. I'm still building webpages 9 years later.

I'm a bit disappointed with this one, then, because, although it is wonderfully informative and useful, it just doesn't have that same no-nonsense zing that my first did. The book does exactly what it says: gives a good, solid introduction to programming for the beginner. It does its best at instilling enough foundation to create a future programmer who will instinctively follow best practices (drilling in basic concepts like binary, so presumably people won't do dumb things later on like allowing buffer overflows because they can't count). It introduces operators before it ever tells the student to start coding. All in all, it's a gentle, easy to grasp guide to the fundamentals of programming that anyone can understand.

So why the mild disappointment? The main downside to the book in my opinion is that they lean towards dumbing things down -too- much, at least on occasion. A couple of quintessential examples that come to mind early on are:

1) Figure 4.9 - a ridiculous icon of a computer with a magnifying glass in front of it. This is intended to show you "how data is stored in memory." About half the images in the book are completely useless in this regard.

2) Sentences like "Notice that in sci-fi... humans interface with computers and robots using spoken language? Being able to do that now would be sweet!"

Easy is an admirable trait in a book of this sort. Stupid is not. That said, I think the ease and usefulness overall outweigh the occasional absurdity, and I would recommend it to someone who has either had no programming or has tried it but finds themselves totally baffled by it (and who can generally override their innate gag reflex). It does what it says, and for that I suppose it deserves a hearty 4 stars. I just don't have the heart to give it that fifth one.