A suggestion of Five Computer Programming Books for Beginners

You have a mathematical mind and you like to work alone from home or would like to join a large firm of programmers but you have never tried it before? The best thing is to start by reading a few books to understand the basics and discover if it’s something that you still enjoy, once you’ve learned more about it. Here are some books for beginners that can help you do that.

Find a book specific to Computer Programming, Easy to Understand

Books, today, are still the best way to introduce yourself to a new subject, including computer programming. On the internet, you may find articles and various lengths texts but it will never go as deeply into the subject as a book will. It’s important to choose one that will focus specifically on the subject, so that you don’t get derailed into another direction. What you want, after reading it, is to know if you enjoy it and want to keep learning more in order to become a programmer.

Good books for beginners are always hard to find. They are normally written by professionals, highly experienced in their field, that forget to keep in mind the person reading, in theory, has no experience at all on the subject at hand. Therefore, it can sometimes be quite complicated to understand everything written inside these books, until you get to accumulate enough knowledge to go back on previous chapters and reread them with a new perspective. However, some writers do understand the need to simplify and keep things easy-to-read for newcomers. Here is a selection of books for beginners that will enlighten you and bring you sufficient information for you to make a decision on your future career.

The Complete Reference – C++

One thing you really want to find in a beginners’ book is examples, which help you understand more easily the text descriptions. In this book by Herbert Schildt, you will find hundreds of sample applications and examples that will permit you to integrate more easily the information being provided to you. This is the most popular book from this writer, and it’s because it goes in-depth on computer language while bringing you the latest C features. It is a great book to learn applications starting from the very beginning.

Code Complete

A good teacher is someone that can synthesize the information and that is what Steve McConnell is doing in this book. If you go into a bookstore, chances are it is this particular book that they will suggest, if you ask for a beginners book on computer programming. It has helped programmers around the world to write better software for more than a decade already, thanks to its hundreds of leading-edge code samples and practices.

Learning to Program

If you know a programmer, it is probable that if you ask him to recommend a book for you, it will be this one. Stephen Foote, who wrote this book, was able to create a clear and easy to read introduction on the basic principles of programming, which in itself is quite difficult to do. One of the best books in his genre, it will provide you with all the information you need in order to attain the necessary knowledge you’ll need to program and write software.

The C Programming Language

Although it was written at the very beginning of computer programming, this is still one of the best books to learn this profession. This book by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie really brings you back to the start of computer programming and makes it easy for you to understand it. It is best known for its section on ANSI standard, which is probably the best starting point for any new programmer wanting to learn.

Head First C – A Brain-friendly Guide

Brain-friendly doesn’t mean it was written for dummies. This book by David Griffiths might be the one on the list that takes you farthest into the world of computer programming, as it brings the reader to a full language learning experience. That and the information on structured imperative programming will help you not only to learn but to also become a highly skilled programmer in the future, by providing the basic knowledge you will need to reach that level.

Beginning Programming for Dummies

We mentioned that the previous book was not for dummies… well this one proudly says it is. So it won’t be a surprise to learn that this book by Wallace & Wally Wang does not go as far into programming as the aforementioned. Is it still worth it? It is easy to read, and it does cover the very basic knowledge. So if the only thing you want is to discover if you will enjoy this field or not; sure, this book can work. But don’t be surprised if you don’t find everything you were expecting to learn.

 

Carry F.

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