Customer Reviews (12)

Great Reference Guide!
I enjoyed every topic covered. It opened my eyes a little more on QB. It truly is the next level up from your ordinary QB programming.

Wonderful
Very, very nice.Forget the petty nitpicking, this is a GREAT book for people serious about using QBasic as a programminglanguage.If it had a true introduction to QBasic for beginners it would be the one-stop-shop for the language.As it is, though, you need to be somewhat familiar in order to appreciate just how good this book is!

Best Basic Game Programming Book
The Revolutionary Guide to Qbasic is by far the best book out there for programming games in basic.It is filled with chapters on sound and graphics that nearly every other book on the market neglects to include.I make games in my spare time and until now have been picking apart other games and asking more experienced programmers how to write complex sections of code.Well, no more!This book has it all: 3-D scrolling, tile based gaming, creating music, and more.Why buy another book about how to make a loop or print data to the screen?This book it truly the best way to advance your hobby in Basic programming.

This the one stop book for QBasic
This book is great.Despite one person's comment on the authors' English it is not bad.I understood it perfectly.No book will make sense if you carefully select a part that needs another paragraph to make sense.Thebook has a great disk of code along with info on advanced QB topics.Greatbook!Buy it!

THE BEST!!!
This book, I feel, is the greatest QBASIC tutorial/reference ever written.It is definitely considered to me a sequel to all the other QBASIC books on the market, in that it seems to take you not only one, but many moresteps ahead.I have been looking for a book with even just a little bit ofadvanced graphics and sound programming.Buying this book got all that andtons more.I pity all those who don't own this title! ... Read more

Book Description
Despite popular belief, anyone can learn to program a computer. Computer programming doesn't require a high IQ and an innate proficiency in advanced mathematics. All that's required is a desire to learn and the patience to never give up.

If you've ever dreamed of writing your own programs, rest assured that you can. Programming can be a lot of fun, but it can also be frustrating, annoying, and time-consuming. And that's why you need Beginning Programming For Dummies, 2nd Edition – to help you discover how to program a computer with the minimum amount of inconvenience and the maximum amount of enjoyment.

Now, enjoyment can go only so far. In fact, not many people program just for the fun of it; usually, they want to create a program to do something unique to their lives, or perhaps they'd like to make a little cash on the side by selling their programs as shareware. If you've always wondered how you could do what so many others have done, all you have to do is plug into Beginning Programming For Dummies, 2nd Edition, to find out how. Here's just a sample of the topics you'll find covered:

• Deciphering the mystery of the various programming languages
• Assembling and working with programming tools
• Getting inside a programming language: Liberty BASIC
• Programming basics: From variables, constants, and comments to strings, control statements, and loops
• Creating user interfaces for your programs
• Dealing with data structures
• Playing with object-oriented programming
• Debugging and optimizing your code
• Top Ten lists on the top programming careers and additional resources

Customer Reviews (34)

Terriffic Book
Well written, to the point, useful information made accessibe: a book that delivers what it promises. In spite of what one reviewer says above, the author goes out of his way to recommend that you use descriptive names for variables. My copy of the 2nd edition has this repeated on a "cheat sheet", printed on cardstock _just inside the cover_. At the top of page 2, under Tips for writing programs:" "-Use descriptive variable names".This book is a good introduction and overview to programming and I highly recommend Liberty Basic.

An unfortunately flawed introduction.
As a programmer, when I first read this book through I thought that it wasn't the best written of the Dummies books, but it was a reasonable introduction that gave a good overview of some of the basics.However, having seen people with no experience of programming at all try to work their way through this book, I've also noticed that the author has sometimes failed to really explain himself in the clear and thorough way that the Dummies books are so good at, and has lost sight of who the book should be aimed at - people with NO experience of programming at all.

My biggest gripe of all is with the use of variable names, on two counts.Firstly, he'll sometimes use variable names that simply won't make any sense - names that have absolutely nothing to do with what the variable is actually being used for within the code.While this doesn't cause a problem with programming, and certainly won't confuse an experienced programmer within such simple coding, it can completely throw people who haven't used a programming language before - it adds unnecessary confusion to code that's mainly intended for complete beginners.

It's also a bad introduction to naming conventions for anyone who'll write code for others to use, as people SHOULD try to make their choices of variable names make sense.It's a bad idea even if nobody else EVER reads it, because if you decide to come back to your code after a year, who knows if you'll still remember what "boing" was supposed to be?

The second issue I have is that he'll repeat the confusion for newcomers by sometimes naming things too similarly.Experienced programmers, again, won't have a problem with this; but for the newcomers who're trying to become familiar with the language, it can confuse them - this is made more likely by the fact that many will already be struggling to come to terms with the code they're working through.Having a variable called test$ and a routine called [test] may seem fine to experienced programmers, but when test$ is actually the value of a radio button, there are much plainer and easier names that the variable could have been given to help avoid confusion for the novice programmer.It could simply have been thought through better, and more consideration should have been given with regard to who this book was intended for.

When compared to some of the other Dummies texts, most of which people could work through from top to bottom without needing much or any assistance, this one falls short of the mark.Beyond just the confusion created by bad choices of names for variables and functions, some of the explanations are unclear - or leave some elements completely unexplained - leaving the unfamiliar programmer out of their depth, with no experience to call on to deduce what the commands or code may actually be doing.

In the end, I simply wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is trying to learn programming from scratch on their own.With some help, it provides a place for programmers to build, but too often the people I've seen work through this have ended up FEELING like Dummies as they became baffled and lost off by the book's sometimes careless style.

A Good INTRODUCTION - Which Is The Point Of This Book
Here's the deal with this book: it's for beginners, hence the title.A lot of reviewers knocked it down a bit because it did not use a "real-world" language like C++ or Java.There is a reason for that...those languages are much more cryptic and tougher to learn, you can get caught-up in just learning the syntax (among many other things) instead of basic programming logic and concepts.A beginners guide should not bog one down with frustration.

The language that is used in this book is LibertyBASIC, which is similar to QBASIC, RealBASIC and other versions and just as easy to learn.I feel that it's necessary to mention here that the BASIC language is the most widely known programming language in the world.Microsoft (where I happen to work) created it's early software in BASIC and is currently still using it's own flavor of the language (Visual BASIC) in-house. Take a look at any college computer science or programming curiculum and you will notice that almost every one of them starts off by teaching BASIC (usually Visual Basic, which is even easier in my opinion).The reason, there again, is because it's simple to grasp and to learn important concepts early-on.

It is true that LibertyBASIC specifically is not used widely in the "real world", but again that is NOT the point of this book. Instead, time is spent on concepts relevant to programming and why they are important.Boolean expressions, arrays, looping statements such as IF/THEN/ELSE and WHILE/WEND and subroutines (among other topics essential to programming basics) are all touched upon here.The point, again, is an INTRODUCTION.LibertyBASIC allows you to quickly get up and running with simple programs and to practice these central concepts without getting confused and frustrated.

The book also touches on other programming languages that exist such as Perl, Python, Ruby, C++, Java and others.It spends a good deal of time giving a background and primer on what these languages try to accomplish and their popular uses. I think this book is ideal for people who are interested in programming but don't know where to start and for those who MIGHT be interested but aren't sure and need an overview of what they will be getting themselves into.

From here, dive into other programming books with more centralized topics or higher-level languages.If this book really piques your curiosity and you decide to get into programming full-time, my personal recommendation is to enroll in a local community college and take C++, C# or Java courses.I think the learning is faster and it helps to have instructor interaction in case something goes awry in your learning.

I hope this helps, and good luck!!!!

Simple programming
I actually didn't know anything about programming when I bought this book.I started reading it and I liked it because it explains things in very simple terms, but then I came across with another book called Beginning Programming written by Adrian and Kathie Kingsley-Hughes and I started comparing them and I started to see why this book by Wallace Wang doesn't deserve five stars.First the book is written using a programming language that while is simple enough to learn it doesn't have too many applications in the real world plus liberty basic cost $30.Even though the book brought a CD with an old version of liberty basic I was not able to run it in my computer.So if I wanted to really learn this language I needed to buy the newer version of Liberty Basic.The book by Kingsley-Hughes is quite simple too and it explains most terms using languages that are more useful in the real world like JavaScript and C++.The Dummies series have other books that are better than this one and they teach real world languages.

Programming For Dummies
Like Most of
The Dummies books, the author is long on nonsense and short on helpful information.I am certainly glad I was able to buy the book used at a very modest price.

The book I received was used and was in very nice condition. ... Read more

Book Description

ArcGIS users can streamline workflow, increase functionality, and improve efficiency by learning to program ArcObjects, the development platform for ArcGIS. Programming ArcObjects with VBA: A Task-Oriented Approach directly relates what you already know about ArcGIS to programming, making it easier to sort out objects, properties, and methods in code.This volume, which adopts Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for programming, first analyzes Geodatabase, the organization of ArcObjects, and ArcOjects help sources. It then reviews programming basics including the writing of code, calling subs and functions, Visual Basic Editor, code debugging, and user interface customization.The book discusses the programming of ArcObjects for solving common GIS tasks such as dataset and layer management, data conversion, vector and raster data analysis, and much more. Each task-programming chapter has three parts: a quick review of ArcGIS commands; a discussion of related objects; and sample programs for problem solving.An accompanying CD contains 95 sample programs, each of which describes its usage, contains a list of key properties and methods, and a listing and explanation of code. Many samples are divided into segments to better connect code lines with explanations. These programs, stored as text files, can be easily imported into Visual Basic Editor in either ArcMap or ArcCatalog to view and run. The CD also contains datasets that can be used to run the sample programs.

Customer Reviews (5)

Worth it. Nothing else like it around
The Arcobjects model is so complex and puzzling that it is no wonder there are few authors that can spare time from actually trying to understanding it, to write a book as good as this one about it, hands down the best in this topic to date. Some criticize it is too basic, but its closest rival, Getting to Know ArcObjects (With CD-ROM) is far simpler. I actually was dissapointed with that one. With this I'm actually learning something. If someone thinks "Programming Arcobjects with VBA" is simple, then they should write a bookthemselves. We can only hope the incoming GIS Programming: Concepts and Applications is even more informative than this one.

Good book
First-off, there is a new edition of this book coming out.So, i won't judge this one on 'outdatedness.'

This is a very good follow-up to the 'getting to know arcpbjects' book from esri (which are the only 2 guide books to arcobjects out there).

It is fairly easy to read, and i like the code given in the text and on the cd, especially on the cd, because you can copy and paste it right into your ArcGIS.

Overall a good instructional book on various arcobjects technics.

Expensive for a dated book
The book is out of date, covering ArcObjects in ArcMap v 8.x.

Even if it were current (up to ArcObjects 9.x), I did not find the book particularly useful or interesting, covering only the rudimentary basics of programming ArcObjects.

Code is very poorly documented and explanations are thin.

Excellent
Good examples. I wish more depth of knowledge with more application oriented examples required.

Excellent book!
It is a quick starter, it is a phenomenal reference book, and it gives you real examples with plain English explanations! Everything that you need in order to start tweaking your ArcGIS environment! ... Read more

Book Description
Designed for a first course in programming, this text gives thorough, comprehensive coverage of QBASIC programming concepts with a problem-solving approach. Includes a large selection of sample programs and problems with a wide range of type and level; enables instructors to tailor assignments. Teaches good programming practices, provides a structured, 7-step procedure, and gives students a framework for problem-solving. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a must for students going into AP Computer Prog.
As a junior in high school, I had to take a placement exam as a prerequisite for AP Computer Programming.THis book helped teach me the basics to the advanced portions of QBasic, and thus helped me a great deal. I highly reccomend this easy to learn QBasic book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Really useful, almost worth the ridiculous price
I got this book as a gift and was shocked when I found out the cost as it is suprisingly thin and looks like it should cost less than half as much, but it really is a brilliant book and I can find no other way to critisiseit.The examples are superb and the definitions for every command areconcise and accurate.A good idea if you can afford it! ... Read more

Book Description
This text is based upon Venit's successful Programming in QuickBASIC (West, 1991), but uses a simpler, lower level approach. A Short Course in QBasic teaches the core of the QBASIC language, together with fundamental programming principles, using subroutines rather than subprograms. Extensive, proven pedagogy gives students lots of support. This text is intended for a short, introductory course in programming or for the programming component of a computer literacy course. A simpler approach to programming (than Venit's longer book) is accomplished in two fundamental ways: (1) by using subroutines instead of subprograms to modularize programs, and (2) by avoiding sophisticated topics including Shell sort, binary search, random files, and advanced built in functions. ... Read more