[GLLUG] intro to programming

[Charles Ulrich]

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 8:43 AM, Michael George <george at idealso.com> wrote:
> We homeschool our children, and the oldest are old enough that I think
>  they are ready for an intro to programming.  I would like a book that can
>  hold their hands and help them learn logic and programming, but do so at a
>  5-7th grade level and using open-source languages.
>
>  I know some on this list are students and some are teachers, so I am
>  hoping there might be some experience-based recommendations.  I'll take
>  what I can get, though.

I can recommend a book called Code by Charles Petzold. It's more of a
computer architecture book than a programming book and it basically
explains how computers work in terms that anyone should be able to
understand. The author begins by describing morse code via
flashlights, then explains the old-fashioned telegraph system, moves
onto electrical relays, Braille, and barcodes, and by the end of the
book has you writing assembly for the Intel 8080 and Motorola 6800
before you are even told that you're doing so.

No software is included, but there are a lot of open source emulators
that will run code similar to that used in the book. This is the book
that inspired me to attempt writing a Z80 emulator in C. (I got 11
instructions implemented and decided that was good enough for a proof
of concept. :P)

http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/

(Yes, it's published by Microsoft Press, but trust me, there's nothing
Microsoft about this book.)

Charles