Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming teaches you everything you need to know to understand computer programming at a fundamental level. You will learn what the major programming languages are, how they work, and what they do. Using Visual Basic, you will learn how to write simple programs working with input and output and then progress into writing more complex applications like an interest calculator that incorporate more advanced features such as data processing. The concepts you will learn, such as how to make decisions in your code or work with arrays, will apply not only to Visual Basic programming, but to programming in any language. Additionally, you will find out how to maintain and distribute the code you write. Greg Perry gives you the lay of the programming landscape, describing the different kinds of programming you can do and what languages are best suited to each, giving you practical how-to advice every step of the way. You will benefit from Greg's years of experience as a professional programmer, as he describes how the programming business works and how you can get employment as a full-time, working programmer.

Contents

• Pt. I Prelude to Programming
• 1 Computers Are Tools
• 2 Anatomy of a Program

• Pt. II Fundamentals of Programming
• 3 Programming Languages: The Early Years
• 4 Programming Languages: Modern Day

• Pt. III Hands-On Programming
• 5 Your First Language: Visual Basic
• 6 Input and Output
• 7 Data Processing with Visual Basic
• 8 Working with Data
• 9 Having Fun with Visual Basic
• 10 Advanced Visual Basic Programming
• 11 Online Visual Basic Programming

• Pt. IV Programming in Various Environments
• 12 Program Algorithms
• 13 Programming with C
• 14 Programming with C++
• 15 Batch, Macro, and Scripting Languages
• 16 Internet Programming Concepts
• 17 HTML Programming
• 18 DHTML Programming
• 19 Introduction to XML
• 20 Java Programming 307
• 21 JavaScript

• Pt. V The Business of Programming
• 22 The Importance of Maintenance
• 23 Distributing Your Applications
• 24 The Programming Business
• 25 Your Programming Future