programming

[scott]

> andym645 wrote:
> 
> HI
>    I WOULD BE VERY GRATEFULL IF YOU COULD TELL ME WHAT WOULD BE THE
> BEST BOOK TO BUY ON PROGRAMMING AS I HAVE NEVER DONE IT BEFORE.

Don't buy a book at first. Instead, go here:
http://www.honors.montana.edu/~jjc/easytut/easytut/node3.html
"Non-Programmers Tutorial For Python" 
It is a good, free tutorial that doesn't assume you know anything about
programming. It even tells you where to get the programming language
(Python) for free and how to install it.
If you are still interested after you complete the above, try these ones
next:

2.How to think like a computer scientist
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/

3.Learning to Program
http://www.crosswinds.net/~agauld/
This one is also available in book form.

Now would be a good time to check if you are having fun yet.
Professional programmers who don't like programming are an *especially*
miserable lot.

4.The Python tutorial by Guido himself. Not for newbies, but after the 3
above you won't be anymore :-)
http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/tut.html

5.Dive into Python. Again, not for newbies, but it really shows the
power of the language.
http://diveintopython.org/

All the above are free.

This will likely take you 4 months or so of 9 hours a week study
allowing some time for slacking off while other life events intrude
(obviously your mileage can vary from 1 week to 50 years...), but you
will definitely know quite a bit about programming at the end.
 
Then learn Java and rake in the money if that's what you're into. The
classic, free tutorial is here:
http://web2.java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/
Java is also free and can be acquired here:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/


>   AND ALSO IF YOU KNOW OF ANY BOOK THAT COULD TELL ME ABOUT HOW OTHER
> WEB USERS CAN HACK INTO MY COMPUTER, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW THEY DO
> IT AND HOW THEY CAN BE STOPPED. IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THIS AT
> ALL AGAIN I WOULD BE VERY GRATEFULL

Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions, Third Edition 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072193816/
Amazon says it will be published tomorrow ("This item will be published
on September 27, 2001. You may order it now and we will ship it to you
when it arrives") so it doesn't get more up to date than that in book
form :-)
The previous 2 versions got very good reviews.

-- 
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. 
     Chomsky