On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, David Parmet wrote: > Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 10:07:27 -0400 (EDT) > From: David Parmet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: another good book > > Can anyone recommend some good reading on basic programming? I have no > knowledge aside from knowing a bash shell from a hole in the ground and > I'd like to learn some basic skill so I can figure out how this thing > works?
Hi David Which book I would recommend depends on what language you want or need to program in. If C++ and you have limited programming skills, then I'd say buy Walt Savitch, Problem Solving with C++, AWL. Caveat: I ghost authored the recent revision with Walt's close supervision, so that really isn't blowing my own horn too much - we do use it in our course here at WCU. It has an annotated bibliography of books in programming in C++ that is pretty good. If you are already understand problem solving and need to learn C, this can be learned from the Kernighan and Ritchie, ANSI C language, from Prentice Hall, or one of the plethora of other C++ beginning programming books. Beware of books that deal with the synatx of a language without dealing with much programming. K&R does not suffer from that problem. Frankly, for Debian or any Linux distribution, shell programming, Perl, and Java Script might be better places to put your effort. C and C++ will take a couple of years of part time effort to get really good at. Perl etc. perhaps less time. The hard part of learning to program well is problem solving, not learning the syntax of the language. Write me back and I'll send some recommendations on Perl. I'm sure the others on this list will have some further, excellent recommendations. --David ------------------------------------------------------------------- LINUX: the FREE 32 bit OS for [3456]86 PC's available NOW! David B Teague | Ask me how user interface copyrights & software [EMAIL PROTECTED] | patents make programing a dangerous business.