Q: "Best" book for teaching

[aliencat777 at gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 8, 2009 7:34:55 AM UTC+8, John Yeung wrote:
> On Apr 6, 10:37 am, grkunt... at gmail.com wrote:
> > I am considering teaching an "introduction to programming"
> > course for continuing education adults at a local community
> > college. These would people with no programming experience,
> > but I will require a reasonable facility with computers.
> >
> > What would be a good book to use as the text for the course?
> 
> For an extremely gentle introduction, perhaps take a look at _Python
> Programming for the Absolute Beginner_ by Michael Dawson:
> 
>   http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Michael/dp/1592000738
> 
> A coworker of mine recently bought this book, which is how I found out
> about it.  Besides assuming no programming experience, it tries to
> stay interesting through the use of simple games for its examples
> (eventually building up to the use of the popular pygame library).
> The writing style is definitely more "fun" than "academic".
> 
> John

An up to date book that is great for a short 21 lesson course is; "Start Here: Python 3x Programming Made Fun and Easier" by Jody S. Ginther. This is a good beginning programming course that introduces the entire process of software design including; version systems, planning, logic, and packaging. It takes a newbie from ground zero to making arcade style games complete with sound, music, graphics, and an creating an installation package in only 21 easy to follow lessons. 

You can find it at http://www.quantum-sight.com

Jody