Hobbyist - Developer Book Recommendations

Question

It will be a gift for a family member. He's older, a retired school teacher and likes to tinker with programming mostly as a mental exercise to stop the old brain cells from gelatinizing.

I've seen him make some pretty creative and moderately complex games in BASIC (QBASIC to be precise), and I believe he's making the hop to VB.NET this year. I'd like to get him a good book to help make the transition, and perhaps a copy of Visual Studio 2008.

He's a bright guy and shouldn't have a problem picking it up, but he will need some help getting used to the differences in the languages, as well as help understanding just what OOP is all about.

Can anyone make any supported book recommendations for these requirements?

Answer 1

For what it's worth, I agree with Vainstah and Roger.

The additional feature that makes Python or IronPython a great all around scripting language is that the user can work with functional statements interactively through the Python console based interpreter.

Some of the interactive nature of executing a single statement is available in VB.NET through the Command/Immediate Window inside Visual Studio, but not to the same extent as in Python. The Python, and the IronPython console interpreter, is incredibly flexible and powerful. Working through the interpreter offers a tremendous amount of immediate insights and gratifucation when trying to debug a more complex script statement, or in trying to learn or "spike" a new class or function while learning.

Answer 2

Just so I give some information and not just commentary. A good book for VB.Net beginners is Learning Visual Basic .Net. For Python, I found the best way to start was to use their online tutorial. It was logically arranged and had many examples to figure out how the code worked. Finally, for C# you should look at the Head First series. Hope this is helpful.

Answer 3

I think your family member may enjoy the book Coding4Fun: http://www.amazon.com/Coding4fun-Programming-Projects-Wiimote-Warcraft/dp/0596520743. I don't think it focuses on the language but instead focuses on completing projects. Since he already knows some programming I think learning by example may work OK.

Instead of buying Visual Studio, the express edition may meet a hobbyists needs. Here is a feature comparison chart for Visual Basic .NET: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b4z62wxz.aspx

Answer 4

As an extra you can give Clean Code is fun to read for every programmer. It makes you a better programmer in general

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882

Answer 5

Greetings:

My apologies for the oversight on my part in not addressing the original question on VB.NET Book recommendations, and thanks to Wade73 and Daniel May for pointing out my error. My intent was not to promote one language over another, although I do prefer working in Python than in VB.NET. Nonetheless, having work experience in both VB.NET and Python, I would like to suggest the following VB.NET books to consider. In addition, I've added the google books preview links for your reference.

Pro VB 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform (Windows.Net) Troelsen, Andrew Publisher: APress
ISBN-10: 1590598229 ISBN-13: 978-1590598221

http://books.google.com/books?id=y0uURUiVhgwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=1590598229#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The Book of Visual Basic 2005: .NET Insight for Classic VB Developers MacDonald, Matthew Publisher: No Starch Press
ISBN-10: 1593270747 ISBN-13: 978-1593270742

http://books.google.com/books?id=2dvQGrXvR0UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=1593270747#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Programming Visual Basic 2008 Patrick, Tim Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN-10: 0596518439 ISBN-13: 978-0596518431

http://books.google.com/books?id=mggpAr3fskEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=0596518439#v=onepage&q=&f=false

A number of my colleagues at my current employer have benefitted greatly from both Patrick's and Troelsen books. And although tailored to 2005, a number of my former colleagues at a previous company also relied heavily on MacDonald's book.

I hope this was of help...