Programming ABCs Part 1: Thinking like a Programmer

Programming has become one of the most sought after skills in the recent years. There are numerous great programming books available, and the Internet is full of websites where one can learn about getting started with any programming language. However, the focus of this book is not to teach a programming language, but to make newcomers think like a programmer using pen-and-paper. To do so, this book focuses on learning algorithms and pseudocode. And I have tried to limit the concepts that maybe applicable only to a particular set of programming languages.When I began writing this book, I had my 11 years old kid in mind. My goal was to make it easier for him to understand how to make computers do what he desires, and associate the working of real objects with programs. However, I deviated a little from this initial goal and tried to capture the interest of a larger set of audience. My hope is that not just kids, but anyone getting started with programming can benefit from this book.Your Key TakeawaysMy anticipation is that if you go through all chapters of this book and do the associated exercises (easy and challenging), you will understand:How computers workDifferent kind of instructions a computer understandsWhat are important parts of a programHow to write a program via pen-and-paperSome advanced programming conceptsHow to convert real world problems to programming conceptsBook OrganizationIntroduction: understanding what is programming, components of a computerAlgorithms: basics of computing, variables, conditions, loops, nestingArrays: single and multidimensional arrays, algorithms with arrays, sortingFunctions: basics, variables and functions, returning and passing valuesAdvanced Topics: ring storage, modulo, sticky flags, infinite loops, slices and tilesNext Steps in Programming: some programming concepts that might be part of the next book in this seriesEach chapter tries to focus on real world problems that require a computer to solve. In addition, each chapter (except the last one) has easy and challenging exercises to walk your programming skills. Read more