Book Recommendation Please

[henry]

I want to begin to learn to program. I need a book to get started. I doubt
that I have the patience to ever be anything more than about average but I
need to learn the concepts.

Our company is beginning to use more Internet capability and I need to learn
the basics of web and database programming and so on.

I have looked at some of the introductry books (Dummies, Sam's and Jim
Buyens). Can someone recommend a book for someone who wants to learn the
concepts and do some elementary programming?

 

[Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage]

look at places like bookpool.com
I used Active Server Pages 3.0 From Scratch by QUE publishing. it was a
nice, easy to read and understand book.

I guess you'd have to decide what programming language you want to use.

I've found a nice asp.net book;
Dynamic Websites with the asp.net web matrix by WROX publishing.

HTH

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

Make More Money with Less Work
Let Your Clients Control Their Content With Just A Browser!
http://contentseed.com/

 

[henry]

Thanks for the recommendation. Neither of those sound like a beginners book
though. Is there something more basic; maybe starting with the "waht, if
and" statements?

 

[clintonG]

If you *really* want to learn to program I'd recommend
Deitel & Deitel [1],[2] textbooks which are structured lessons
that are also excellent as reference works. These books can be
found on the shelves at bookstores such as Barnes & Noble.

I recommend you obtain Visual WebDev 2005 Express [3]
which allows you to work with C# *and* Visual Basic.NET but
I do strongly urge you to focus on learning C# as your fundamental
language.

My rationale is simple: any *competent* web developer *must*
know and master JavaScript which is used by the browsers for
client-side functionality (unless an Intranet where all users are
using IE which can also use VBScript for client-side functionality
and even then experience suggests not doing so as VBS is weaker
than JavaScript).
..
The *syntax* for JavaScript, C#, and Java is identical because
they were all derived from C which is *the* legacy language for
all serious software development. Thus, for web development, you
learn to read and write one language and you've learned to
read and write the others.

It all depends on your ability to stay focused and not give up when
you start feeling how stupid you think you are. That's really the
bottom line Henry and *you* will be your biggest challenge.

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher, "Twice the Results -- Half the Cost"
Architectural & e-Business Consulting -- Software Development
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

[1] http://www.deitel.com/
[2] http://www.prenhall.com/deitel/
[3] http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/

 

[Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage]

not really Henry, they're both pretty basic and walk you through the stuff
pretty gently.

HTH

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

Make More Money with Less Work
Let Your Clients Control Their Content With Just A Browser!
http://contentseed.com/
--