[ultimateweb]

Mine was , 6 years ago, called QBasic.It was ok.

[10e12]

2 books actually...

A very general but good kick-start book in VB 5 and of course...

Dan Appleman's Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Win32 API

IMHO Best writer in the programmer market I have stumbled on so far.

This one you can still get if you need a quick introduction and loads of good tips on working with the Win32 API for any environment. It doesn't make you a pro, but it teaches you enough to be dangerous, and tells you also how to avoid the really dangerous which one perhaps should not do in VB or any app.

[iniaes]

I haven't even finished working through it yet, but my first book is :

Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours, by Greg Perry.

Taking me through Liberty BASIC, and what a hoot it is, really simple stuff, but it is quick, easy and hugely rewarding

I intend to follow this with Beginning Programming for Dummies, by Wallace Wang. Coincidentally this uses Liberty BASIC too, Ihad no idea when I bought the books. ~shrugs~

[SarumanTheWhite]

It's been awhile and I've had so many books it's hard to remember. I think it may have been a For Dummmies C++ book.

[Nallo]

Some 20 odd years ago as a teenager a book about programming the Comodore 64 "breadbox" using assembler. Painfull enough to read and understand. But I learned an awfull lot about how a computer works. It demystified that ´game box´ for me

[earlgrey]

My first book was Begginging Programming for Dummies by Wallace Wang, I think I bought it around 10 years ago.

[Nikitin]

earlgrey, on 26 October 2010 - 10:11 AM, said:

My first book was Begginging Programming for Dummies by Wallace Wang, I think I bought it around 10 years ago.

That was my first book as well.

[AlbuquerqueApache]

My first programming book was trueBASIC and I did it on an imac.

It was definitely procedural programming.

second book was a VB.net book by bradley & millspaugh

third book is my trusty deitel's Java programming 8th edition late objects model.

[lordofduct]

I read through a few books. But personally in my opinion, the first books I used in training my programming skills were math text books. I base my programming skills in much of mathematics... for instance I treat functional operations as algebraic functions in my head, and positioning and analyzing them in that manner. I then apply linear algebra concepts into my traversing between functional operations that aren't exactly similar. Just like linear algebra allows you to easily convert from a 2 dimensional radial space into a 3 dimensional cartesian space... the same concepts and principles allow me to devise a method that requires 2 parameters of one type into a a method that requires 3 parameters of another. You then string this all together and you can paint immense multidimensional data spaces that becomes your value/event driven world space.

Of course it doesn't always work out how I hope, but neither did the math. That's the learning experience I guess.

Once I actually picked up some books on programming in genera, they included:

1) A handful of language specific texts to assist me in learning the syntax of a given language. These included text on Java, C#, C++, AS3 (yes, flash), and PHP. I quickly learned they were mostly useless and that online documentation was MUCH better because I was mostly concerned about the datatypes, their relationships, and basic syntax. I mostly just ended up lending them to friends who were starting out.

2) Design Patterns : Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - http://www.amazon.co...d/dp/0201633612 - because OOP intrigued me the most. I like the encapsulation and polymorphic traits of OOP. It's similar to how I solve problems in the real world (breaking mathematical equations into sub functions or value types and treating them as objects themselves)

3) The first 3 volumes of "The Art of Programming" By Knuth - http://www.amazon.co...88133981&sr=1-4 (my copy didn't come with 4A in the box set) - the title intrigued me, the reputation of the text got my ego roaring, and I felt I should learn the deep underbelly of computer technology and the history that got it to where it is today.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 26 October 2010 - 04:04 PM

[Nikitin]

lordofduct, on 26 October 2010 - 03:59 PM, said:

I then apply linear algebra concepts into my traversing between functional operations that aren't exactly similar. Just like linear algebra allows you to easily convert from a 2 dimensional radial space into a 3 dimensional cartesian space... the same concepts and principles allow me to devise a method that requires 2 parameters of one type into a a method that requires 3 parameters of another. You then string this all together and you can paint immense multidimensional data spaces that becomes your value/event driven world space.

[Kilorn]

Believe it or not, my very first programming book was "The Complete Idiot's Guide to C++". Wasn't exactly a great book, and it was something like 8 years ago, and I wasn't really as interested in reading through the book as I thought I would be at that time, so I don't think I actually learned anything from it.

[creativecoding]

http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/0672302691

I feel like I grew up in the 1980's.

[alias120]

I bought a text book for school that I cannot remember the name of. It's was an intro to programming using C++.
The first book I personally bought was "The C++ Programming Language". I didn't get very far initially, the content was a little over my head. It was a good purchase though, great reference material to have.

[Nikhil_07n]

Syllabus book for VB6 & databases for School.

But the first book I purchased for learning on my own was Head First Java about 2 months ago.

[Crimson Wings]

Mine was "C++ Without Fear". Got it 3 years ago. To the day, it's still on my shelf. I remember how every page dumbfounded me and I was stuck in every simple thing for hours and days, haha. I still remember how I didn't understand what variables were really for.