Ask HN: Best Intro Programming Book?
I want to get my 17 year old nephew an introductory programming book for Christmas. Probably about Python, but it doesn't have to be. What's currently considered to be the best intro to programming?
If he's generally geeky, then Learn Python the Hard Way is excellent - but you need to already be very motivated to sit down and work through the exercises.
Similarly, Hello World! is a good book for the complete beginner, but a 17 year old might find it a bit easy.
And based on the reviewers who've looked at it so far, Hello Python! tends to do well with relative beginners, but complete novices find it a bit hard, and it annoys the hell out of some experienced programmers - not sure why, I think it's because I don't explain everything in detail and gloss over to the interesting bits :)
Have you considered something along the lines of an Arduino + book? Some people seem to get a kick out of making things actually happen, rather than just appear on a screen...
After I got my first Lego Mindstorm robot (13 yrs-old), I got more interested, but it was a pretty limited robot. It wasn't until I started playing Second Life (15-16 yrs old) and learned their scripting language (and even made some money) that I got highly motivated, because I could see things happening and it was quite easy.
I would say an Arduino + book would have motivated me even further than SL. I know Wiring (Arduino's programming language, which is pretty similar to C) isn't as pretty as python, but when you are coding for the first time, you don't mind syntax, all you care is being able to finish the challenges you (or someone) set for yourself.
EDIT: I don't know any beginner arduino book, but Make magazine and some Make books available in O'Reilly seem to be good resources.
I saw a non-technical friend go through it in the course of about a month last year. Though the book doesn't teach in Python, it does teach general programming concepts and my buddy is currently doing a lot of Python coding as a grad student. In fact he credits his programming skills as a giving him a huge edge in his research job.
The author did an excellent job of making even basic exercises in the earliest chapters as engaging as they reasonably could be.
Also, the O'Reilly Head First books are usually good - with a fairly light-hearted, humorous approach for starters - and their "Head First Programming" book is Python based. ( http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596802387.do?sortby=publ... )
Does it have to be a book ? Maybe a subscription to something like Code School ( http://www.codeschool.com ) would also be quite cool, as they have courses like "Try Ruby" and "Rails for Zombies" .
Pine's code uses a fair amount of personal coding preferences without explaining them. To a beginner, this can be extremely confusing.
How to Think like a Computer Scientist was a superior introduction in my opinion. It got me excited about learning a language comprehensively.
The basic theme of the book is that I replicate the path that most programmers follow when they learn how to program - start with something small and build up. I cover games and a couple of Python's more important tools, like Twisted, Pyglet and Django.
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596155520.do
It's incredibly difficult to learn to program if you are doing it just for the sake of learning. Most people learn best and stay motivated with a real project.
I'm sure I'll be laughed at for suggesting it but they're really amazing at explaining things in layman's terms, there's usually some project that's useful that you build throughout it, and you actually retain the information when you're done. I know they don't teach you the latest greatest but as a beginner you don't need that stuff anyway and the fundamentals are what it's really about. "For Dummies" books are underrated. They're not cool but they work.