Suggestion for Where to Learn the Required Programming?

[Michael]

Hi,

I know that this book assumes you've already had an introductory course in programming.  Though I did have one, it was 15 years ago, and I don't remember much at all.  I have really enjoyed the hardware portion (I'm in Chapter 6), including the style of teaching.  Any suggestions for where to go to learn the programming that is supposed to be the prerequisite?  I have seen a Java tutorial from Sun, online, that may be good.  If there is a programming book/course in a style similar to this author's, and is quick, that would be ideal, I guess!

Thanks~

[ybakos]

This question has broad answers, but I recommend an interpreted language like Python or Ruby. A great place to start with Python is "Python Programming" by Zelle.

[cadet1620]

I second Ybakos' recommendation of Python and Ruby.  I wrote my assembler in Python, and later rewrote it in Ruby to get a feel of that language.

I taught middle school aged kids to program in Python using an earlier version of Think Python:
How to Think Like a Computer Scientist.  This book is available as a free pdf under the Creative Commons license.

Become a registered member of the board and you can send me email directly using "more > reply to author" if you have specific questions about Python or just want some general help learning it.

--Mark

[milythael]

For Ruby for the complete novice, I'm a fan of Learn to Program by Chris Pine.  I've taught a couple of novices with it.