Beginning Programming All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies 1st Edition

This a fantastic book. I just thumbed through it and I gleaned a piece of information that I had been looking for a year. Well worth the money.

I read this cover to cover (all 7 books) in just under two weeks. That being said, it is pretty readable compared to most of its kind. I was on the fence between computer science and chemistry for my major, and after reading this i feel like i am a lot closer to computer science, and I also feel more prepared to take a Java Programming course this summer.I would say that the only thing that kind of bugs me about the book is the constant "humorous" interjections.While they are funny at the beginning, they get really old because a lot of the book (especially Book 1) is written in that way. After a while the interjections feel more like interruptions and I sigh as I just want to get on to what he is actually saying without having to bear the corny jokes during or after every informative statement. I also don't like the occasional little quips that say something to the effect of 'All computer programmers are lazy so the goal is to make a program with as little work required as possible'. I know that these jokes aren't supposed to be taken seriously but after reading multiple times the thought of computer programming as a possible future felt less exhilarating and more blah.Now that I am done with that negative paragraph, I can say that the book is overall amazing. Despite my annoyance at some of the writing styles that the author utilizes, the book has everything I could ask for. It is clear, repetitive (in a good way),and exciting enough to increase my interest in computer science. It may seem contradictory for me to give 5 stars despite my last paragraph, but the ultimate purpose of the book is carried out so well that it would not feel right to tack off a star, (especially on something that others may actually find enhances the book).Main Points: It absolutely worth buying; it will let you know if computer science/ programming is your thing, and it is an easy read.

I am really enjoying this book, it has very good explanations from the bottom up to help you understand the principles of programming. I am a very logical person so when a book skips info, explains things out of order, etc, it can be confusing for me. But this book presents everything in a clear and logical order.

I have no programming background and picked up this book to see if I could learn a few things. In my opinion, the author does a good job of explaining concepts and is easy to follow. If you're looking for a high level overview of programming, this is a good read. Just don't buy this book with the expectation that you will be writing any programs by the time you're done reading it. It's an introductory book to programming, not a 300 level college course in any particular language.My only beef is that this book was terribly proof read.

Perfect for learning from

First, this is good read so far (I'm pretty into the 2nd book so far). It covers useful general information without becoming too technical.Sometimes it gets little too basic, but still useful, especially for the beginner. For the most part, it is readable.However... there are some glaring errors I cannot ignore. That's why I'm reviewing this before finishing the whole book.One thing is that some of the language is a little awkward at times.The second thing is that some of the information, as noted earlier, is a little superficial, but worse, repetitive.Some of the things he says about the C language are repeated almost word-for-word in several sections (fewer keywords, more compact programs, potentially confusing for beginners, etc).But the worst thing is that the book needs better editing. It probably could have been shortened by taking out redundant material. Here is the worst error, I found. Page 137:First [sic] use of "Sub Programs" needs to be one word in the first paragraph of the artwork. Also, shouldn't"real world components" be hyphenated to be "real-world components"?This looks suspiciously like a note from an editor. Now you could say it was a stab at humor, but this is book on programming, not grammar. And why would the author point out his own mistakes instead of changing them? Furthermore, looking at the places indicated, you can see they are exactly like what was mentioned. So not only did the author ignore/miss the suggestion for correction, it ended up in his book! Careless and unprofessional. Makes me wonder about other information in the book...

Really starts you off with the basics and works you up from there going over a lot of material without ever making it sound hard. Doesn't teach you to code or anything. Instead it gives you something more important: it teaches you how all the pieces interact and why you need everything. Definitely worth the money.

i knew nothing about coding and this book was a very thorough overview of coding. after reading this book I wasn't ready to go write a billion dollar app but it did explain a lot about how coding works and explained the difference languages used to code and their strengths and weaknesses. im still a noob but I no longer feel like a complete dummy when people talk about code.