What Approach This Book Takes


Ah, the places you’ll go! The things you’ll see! This book is about a journey, an exciting one at that.

The approach this book takes can be boiled down to four general principles:

  • Have fun while learning how to program!

  • Learn by doing. Immersion is the best way to learn programming.

  • Do it right the first time. If you learn the concepts behind modern programming and good programming practices, then the things you learn in this book will be applicable wherever you go and whatever you do.

  • Don’t let the technology get in the way of learning how to program.

My premise in writing this book is that understanding is key. In keeping with that premise, I’ve decided to use JavaScript as the teaching language throughout Learn How to Program. Despite its rather awkward name—it sounds like it has something to do with Java when it doesn’t, and it sounds like it’s a scripting language or a “lite” programming language—JavaScript is a full-fledged modern programming language, providing the ability (indeed, necessity) of working with objects, understanding event-driven programming, and much more. Best of all, everyone has access to it without needing to buy or install anything new.

Emphatically, Learn How to Program isn’t a book about the JavaScript language. Also, it’s not about adding bells and whistles to Web sites although this can be fun and a good motivation for learning to program (so you’ll see a few bells and whistles along the way and specifically in Chapter 11, “ Programming with JavaScript ”).

Learn How to Program is about the how and why of programming languages, about understanding good programming practices, and about helping you learn to think in a new way (that is, like a computer).




Learn How to Program Using Any Web Browser
Learn How to Program Using Any Web Browser
ISBN: 1590591135
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 115
Authors: Harold Davis

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