[...]... will also try to give you a sense of what programming really is and show you that you can already program though not program computers By the end of this chapter you should be able to write a very simple program for yourself that will build more complicated images from an instruction to place a colored square in a window at a place of your choosing What Is Programming? Many people think that computer programming. .. point; what you do with your programming is only constrained by your imagination For example, it is not that hard to program a computer to play chess, just very hard to write a program to play sensibly, which is why we leave it to experts to write chess-playing programs You will also learn techniques to produce simple animation, elementary data processing and numerical work so that your programming basics... latter makes it easy to search for a word or phrase Installing software from the CD: Unless you have switched off the auto start feature of Windows, the CD should automatically start and lead you through the process of installing all you need By default it will offer to install in C:\tutorial If you want to install to another drive just change the drive letter You can install to a different directory... programmer, just an inexperienced one These chapters both show you what can be done with what you know and provide you some useful extras that you can use in your own programming The last chapter has the same title as the first exactly because you will have come full circle You start as someone who has the potential to be a programmer and you finish as someone who knows they can program Whether you move... if you do then you are on your own There are many excellent commercial programming tools available but they are professional tools and as such they are designed to be used by professionals The second element is the appendices and glossary These are provided as Microsoft Word and HTML files That means that you can print them or use them electronically The former allows you to add your own annotations and... freely shared The consequence is that you have in your hands everything you need (other than a computer and your time and energy) to learn to program The choice is entirely yours, if you want to learn to program and by doing so learn a bit about how other people’s computer programs work, you can Roberta and I have spent nine solid months writing this book for you (that does not mean it will take you nine... window’s banner is where we can display graphical material Underneath it is a black console window that will have the name of the program in its banner In this case it is my first program The graphics window is unusual because it is a static window, which means that you cannot resize it (and on some versions of Windows you cannot move it either) The console window is a normal MS-DOS type window: it can be... insane I am scared of computers and useless at math However, I am sure that if I can learn to program with Francis’ help then anyone can, so perhaps I am a good choice after all Acknowledgments A book is the product of many people in addition to the named authors An attempt to give an exhaustive list only leads to a feeling of having been slighted by those who have been left out However there are always... you wish to become a flautist It may be technically possible to read such a book in a few days but that would not turn you into any kind of musician A single book on flute playing takes many months to read effectively and at every stage you would read the book with your flute readily to hand You would practice and listen to good flautists This book is about acquiring a skill and so I have designed it to. .. they are useless to your blind guests because a blind person will be unable to read them The program you have written must be converted into some form that is suitable for the user Please think about this and we will come back to it after you have done a small practical exercise This involves a computer program, a very simple one that I have written for you but which you have to pass to your computer Introduction .