Beginning Programming in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

by Perry, Greg; Miller, Dean

• ISBN13: 9780672337000
• ISBN10: 0672337002
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-12-09
• Publisher: Sams Publishing

Summary

If you want to learn computer programming but don’t know which language to start with, this is the book for you! In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, any beginner can get a solid introduction to the basics of computer programming and learn to write simple programs for any platform—Windows, Mac, and mobile.

Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson in this carefully crafted tutorial builds upon the previous one, allowing you to learn all the essentials of programming from the ground up.

Once you’ve mastered these fundamentals, the book introduces you to several of the most popular computer programming languages today and helps you decide which language to learn first.

• Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common programming tasks.
• Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn to create your own programs
• Quizzes and exercises at the end of each lesson help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills

Learn how to…

• Set up your programming toolkit with widely available free downloads
• Create simple programs in JavaScript that get user input and display output
• Process numbers and words
• Use variables to hold information
• Merge strings together
• Tell programs how to make decisions
• Create algorithms to count data values and accumulate totals
• Use JavaScript to create interactive web pages
• Improve a user’s experience with cookies
• Debug your programs before going live
• Structure programs for readability
• Apply your programming skills to more advanced languages like Java
• Use object-oriented programming techniques
• Choose between other popular languages like C and C++, HTML5 and CSS3, Visual Basic and .NET, and PHP
• Distribute and sell your programs

Author Biography

Greg Perry is a speaker and writer in both the programming and applications sides of computing. He is known for bringing programming topics down to the beginner’s level. Perry has been a programmer and trainer for two decades. He received his first degree in computer science and then earned a Master’s degree in corporate finance. Besides writing, he consults and lectures across the country, including at the acclaimed Software Development programming conferences. Perry is the author of more than 75 other computer books. In his spare time, he gives lectures on traveling in Italy, his second-favorite place to be.

 

Dean Miller is a writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience in both the publishing and licensed consumer products businesses. Over the years, he has created or helped shape a number of bestselling books and series, including Sams Teach Yourself in 21 Days, Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours, and the Unleashed series, all from Sams Publishing. He has written books on C programming and professional wrestling, and is still looking for a way to combine the two into one strange amalgam.

Table of Contents

Part I. Start Programming Today

1. Hands-On Programming

2. Process and Techniques

3. Designing a Program

4. Getting Input and Displaying Output

5. Data Processing with Numbers and Words

6. Controlling Your Program

7. Debugging Tools

 

Part II. Programming Fundamentals

8. Structured Techniques

9. Programming Algorithms

10. Having Fun

11. Advanced Programming

 

Part III. Object-Oriented Programming

12. What is an Object?

13. Anatomy of a Class

14. Methods and More

15. Inheritance

 

Part IV. Other Programming Languages

16. HTML5 and CSS3

17. Scripting with PHP

18. Programming with C and C++

19. Java Everywhere

20. Programming with Visual Basic

21. Microsoft.NET

 

Part V. The Business of Programming

22. How Companies Program

23. Distributing Applications

24. The Future of Programming

 

Appendixes

A. Glossary

B. Quiz Answers

C. ASCII Table