Beginning Programming in 24 Hours
I recently finished up reading and working with SAMS Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours (Greg Perry). I've had great success with the book and CD-ROM that accompanied it and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone starting out in programming that can't decide on what language to start with.
The book caters to almost any beginning audience, whether you're someone who has programmed before or someone who has never programming. It takes you through the history of programming, the differences in language, beginning good structure with your program writing with extensive chapters in planning your programs and the importance of planning them out before actually writing them.
The book begins with taking you through Liberty BASIC with programs that progressively get harder as you learn more functions. You move from BASIC to Java to C/C++ to a small overview of web-based languages, such as HTML and JavaScript.
Included on the CD are many examples, the LB Compiler as well as everything you need to start programming in Java.
This resource was absolutely fantastic. You end the book feeling accomplished and ready to learn more. I think it's an excellent book for anyone looking to start out in programming.
The Hour Tutorials:
1. Hands-On Programming With Liberty BASIC
2. Process and Techniques
3. Designing a Program
4. Getting Input and Displaying Output
5. Data Processing with Numbers and Words
6. Controlling Your Programs
7. Debugging Tools
8. Structured Techniques
9. Program Algorithms
10. Having Fun With Liberty BASIC
11. Advanced Programming Issues
12. Programming in Java
13. Java's Details
14. Java has Class
15. Applets and Web Pages
16. Programming With Visual BASIC
17. Programming with C and C++
18. Using HTML for Web Pages
19. Scripting with JavaScript
20. Dynamic HTML and XML
21. .NET -- The Future of Online Programming
22. How Companies Program
23. Distributing Applications
24. The Future of Programming
