Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming

Greg Perry has personally taught thousands of people how to program in the classroom and lectures, as well as impacted the computer world through the sale of more than two million computer books internationally.He has been a programmer and trainer for the past 20 years. He received an undergraduate degree in computer science, followed by a master's degree in corporate finance. After working as a supervisor of financial systems for a Fortune 500 company, he turned to teaching at the college level, where he remained until he began to write full-time and lecture at programming conferences.Some of his other book titles include Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days, C by Example, and several books in the 24 Hours series, including Sams Teach Yourself PCs in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself Office in 24 Hours, and Sams Teach Yourself Windows Millennium in 24 Hours. He has also written articles for several magazines, including PC World and Data Training. He is fluent in several computer languages and speaks a little Italian as well.

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary.)

Introduction.

Who Should Read This Book? Conventions Used in This Book.

I. PRELUDE TO PROGRAMMING.

1. Computers Are Tools.

Computers and Programming. What a Computer Does. Common Misconceptions. Ease-of-Use Matters to Programmers. People and Computers. It Takes More than a Computer. A Quick Overview. Networking It All. Todays Computers. Types of Computers.

2. Anatomy of a Program.

The Programmers Life. The Need for Programs. Programs, Programs, Everywhere. Programs As Directions. The Language Translator. Accuracy Is Everything. The Need for Design. The Program Language.

II. FUNDAMENTALS OF PROGRAMMING.

3. Programming Languages: The Early Years.

Storage of Programs and Data. Binary Arithmetic. The First Programs. Enter the Keyboard. Getting Closer to English. Other Languages Through the Years.

4. Programming Languages: Modern Day.

Pascals Importance and Demise. The C Programming Language. C++s Impact on Modern Languages. Hypertext and Scripting Languages. The BASICs. Which Language Is Best?

III. HANDS-ON PROGRAMMING.

5. Your First Language: Visual Basic.

A Visual Basic Quick Start. Your First Visual Basic Program. Learning the Visual Basic Environment. The Visual Basic Screen. Help Is Close By.

6. Input and Output.

A Quick Windows Program Analysis. Controlling Events. Application Specifics. The Interface Controls. Walking Through an Applications Development. Other Controls. Document with Remarks. Message and Input Boxes.

7. Data Processing with Visual Basic.

Adding Code. The Basics of Visual Basic Data. Expressions and Math Operators. Comparison Operators.

8. Working with Data.

Making Decisions in Code. Using Else. Other Forms of Decision Making. Nesting If...Else Statements. Selecting with Select Case. Looping in Visual Basic.

9. Having Fun with Visual Basic.

Using Shapes. An Aside About Controls. The Line Control. Mastering the Shape Control. A Sample Shape Application. The Picture Box Control.

10. Advanced Visual Basic Programming.

Application: Interest Calculation. Adding the Forms Labels and Text Boxes. Adding Code.

11. Online Visual Basic Programming.

Introducing Visual Basic Wizards. Using the Wizard for the Internet. Sampling the Internet Controls. A Preview of Advanced Issues.

IV. PROGRAMMING IN VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTS.

12. Program Algorithms.

Counters and Accumulators. Swapping Values. Sorting. Nested Loops. Searching Arrays. A Brief Introduction to Data Structures.

13. Programming with C.

Introducing C. Analyzing a C Program. Using the main() Functions Format. Using the #include Statement. C Data. C C...