Review: Syntax Error!
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 20, 2013
The awkward-sounding title of this book is also a clue that the contents are going to miss the mark as well. This book is not going to teach you how to program a computer.If this ebook were a computer program, it would crash. There are many misspellings, grammar errors, punctuation errors, and formatting errors; if the author is indeed a programmer, his code must need a lot of debugging. The choice of using greyed fonts in the chapter and section headings make the headings difficult to read on an eInk reader. Quality assurance testing, anyone? QA testing is a must in the world of software development and is a very good thing to do when publishing an ebook too. Again, if the author is a programmer, he should have been aware of this.The first third of the book is more of an explanation of why it might be a good thing to learn how to "computer program." A lot of the information is repetitive and appears in two and sometimes three sections of the book, sometimes contradicting what has been written elsewhere. Unfortunately a great deal of the information and suggestions are misleading and just plain wrong. Some examples:From Chapter 1 - "What is Computer Programming?" in the section entitled "Programming Language"the author writes"When being introduced to programming the two most common languages that are used are Java and Logo. Logo has been around since the seventies and is used in educational settings more than any other programming language."Putting aside that jumping directly into Java as a first language is a mistake for a beginner, the Logo language certainly is not a commonly used first language these days. It was originally used over 30 years ago in elementary schools for children to manipulate simple graphics. It was not taught then or now as a introductory programming language for students in a computer science or information systems learning environment. Spending time learning this unstructured, limited use language would not benefit someone planning on becoming a programmer with commercially marketable skills.From Chapter 5 - "The 10 Programming Languages You Should Learn Right Now" the ten languages listed are all web-based except C. The author never bothers to explain the technical terminology he uses to describe these languages, terms such as "open-source," "interpretive," "object oriented," "cross-platform," and "CGI." There is no glossary in the book to help a beginner decipher any of these and similar terms used. That aside, the suggested list of languages would limit the student to doing web-based programming. I also disagree with his contention that Java should be the first programming language used. More on this later.From Chapter 9 - "Where to Find Jobs as a Computer Programmers[sic]" contains a lot of information about where the author believes there are jobs, claiming that "there is still a high demand for programmers." There is no mention anywhere about the reality of the situation with off-shore outsourcing of programming jobs or the H1B visa. I won't get into the politics of it in this review, but anyone interested can do searches to find out more about these issues and how they affect technical jobs. I do have to roll my eyes at statements such as "Almost every piece of equipment in a medical setting is not programmed to perform its duties."From Chapter 11 - "How Long Will It Take to Train & Ongoing Education" he writes"Adding new programming languages to your resume is a great way to increase your chances of getting a job. There are hundreds and possible thousands of programming languages out there and learning as many as possible is recommended."Before anyone tries to learn a few dozen programming languages you should know that it's not only the knowledge of a language which will get you hired, but commercial experience in *using* that language, often on a specific operating system or hardware suite and even in a specific industry.In spite of what the author recommends, you can't just teach yourself a few programming languages and hope to get hired. Nor will a certificate from an online school get you past the hiring manager. You need talent, ability, proper training, and then experience to build a career in the technical field these days. Proper training means hands-on study from a certified community college, school, or university. You will also need a good grounding in areas other than just coding such as data structures, computer architecture, design principles, and databases.If you do want to learn something about programming without committing to paying a lot in tuition and attending classes, I'd recommend that you start with simple HTML programming. All you need to get started are a text editor (such as WordPad or KWrite) and a web browser. A introductory book in HTML would be helpful in getting familiar with the structure of the language and standards. Build and test a few web pages to see if you enjoy the challenge of writing and debugging code. Once you're comfortable with that environment, add in a new element such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to your HTML, then later add in Javascript or PHP. If you're still interested after all of that work and study, try your hand at a compiled language such as C and more complex programs.Who am I to make recommendations? Someone who has been there and done that over thirty years ago and has worked in the software development field at all levels from programmer to project manager.If you decide to go the route of learning to program computers, I wish you the best of luck. But you won't be successful if you try to do so by following the recommendations in this ebook.