Rating: 
Summary: OK, but...
Review: Beginning Programming for DUMMIES by W. Wang is not all it's cracked up to be. It starts off very good, giving concise examples on how to program using Liberty BASIC. However, from the middle and towards the end the sample programs fall apart. On several examples I had to find the correct answers on the internet (by joining the Liberty Basic Yahoo group). However, if a person has never programmed anything before, this is a good book to start. But be warned that it does require some outside reference.
Rating: 
Summary: A beginners programming book of wonders
Review: Excellent book for beginning programmers. I myself, have just started programming and this put a great backbone into my skills. With great explanation of QBASIC this is a very indept book. It also gives you examples of HTML, JAVA, C++; while you are learning. So you learn up to 4 programming languages at once. One of the most brilliant writings of Wang.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book for Learning Programming from Scratch
Review: First of all, every sample program in this book ran perfectly for me except for one (at the bottom of p. 264), and the JavaScript programs at the very end (for some reason, JavaScript did not work on the system I was using). Everything else - hundreds of examples - worked great, and required no reference to any outside source. The quality of the 'Dummies' books is variable, but this one is a winner. It is very well organized, and answered a lot of questions I have had about general programming for years, clearly and concisely. Wang is not only a talented programmer. He is a talented programmer who can communicate effectively to a general (but serious) audience, in English. The sample code is very clear and illustrates the topics under discussion beautifully. This is a great book for learning about programming in general, from scratch.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, but beware of errors
Review: I am a 53-year-old male with no previous experience of programming, and I found the book (the second edition based on the Liberty Basic language) to be worth every cent. It is a fantastic, clear, user-friendly, no-nonsense and humorous introduction to the subject and has really opened my eyes to the world of programming. The Liberty Basic language to which Wang introduces you is tops and really makes sense, compared to some other languages. Beware of a lot of errors, though. I suspect that the book was written or published with undue haste, and as a result some of the examples have not been tested and contain errors. But this can be forgiven, having regard to the overall quality. Since then I have gone on to studying Liberty Basic in more detail. I can heartily recommend both book and language.
Rating:
Summary: A great resource for students.
Review: I have been using this book for help when I have been unable to pick up the concept or "nuts & bolts" of using a Qbasic command and have never been disapointed with Mr. Wang's explaination. As an adjunct to the textbook we are using in my Qbasic programming class this book has been a great help. Examples in the book are practical and concise. When the programming problem revolves around a,b & c Wang gives examples using a,b & c not x,y & z as my other textbook does. Furthermore, the chapters at the beginning and end of the book have helped me decide what other languages will be most beneficial for me to learn as I plan my future education. Connections to professional associations,practical career advise, this book has much more than just good programming instruction. I think this book does a great job of teaching Qbasic by itself but as an additional reference it has been invaluable to me.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing, beware
Review: I have purchased maybe half a dozen "Dummies" books and have been very happy with them. This one I am not happy with. Beware, the book says that the included CD is compatible with the XP operating system, but it is not. I contacted the company about it and they suggested I download Liberty Basic from their website, for an extra $30. No thanks. That's one of the reasons I bought the book - for a working CD. They ought to either adjust the disk so it is compatible, or not claim that it is.
Rating:
Summary: Great for program structure -Very Helpful
Review: I have to agree with the prior reviewers exhaustion at the pedestrian political commentary included in the text. But unlike that prior reviewer, I will extol the value to be had here in this book. I approached as a tool to understand the basics of how the various parts of a program are constructed. The book focuses on Qbasic with passing references to C++ (my ultimate goal is to use C++) and Java. Since I plan to progress rapidly to this other language I did not run afoul of the errors reported by the other reviewers because I did not input them.I feel that I have more than adequately met my goal of learning about the "nuts and bolts" of a computer program. There is adequate depth about functions, subroutines, variables and arrays to start you on your way. There are also many tips and danger areas highlighted for the budding programmer. I don't feel that this book is lacking with regard to the structure of programming, and I will not rate this lower because of the coding errors others have reported, but I can not give this a higher ranking because of the inane attempts at humor. Mr. Wang, a comedian you are not, keep to your day job.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful and fun
Review: I have to deal with computers for my work at the hospital, which like many such institutions has become more and more computerized with every passing year. I would find the fact far less irritating if those who have charge of the process would stop tinkering with it long enough for me to use it with the "efficiency" that was originally intended, but such is never the case. To help me get a feeling for what the IMS people are doing so that I can better understand the entire process, I decided to take a mini-course on beginning programming. Wallace Wang's Beginning Programming for Dummies was the suggested course text, and although I started out convinced that I could never understand even a fraction of the information, I was pleasantly surprised. As advertised the fundamentals of programming presented in the text were understandable and doable. I was completely surprised to discover that my home computer already had a QBASIC program available on it and that I could use it to make simple programs. By following the book step by step, I was able to accomplish the tasks as designed and was amazed at the types of things the programs I wrote could do. I'm not sure that I have anything earth shaking to design for computers or that I'll be so taken with programming that I will give up surgical ICU to take it up, but I feel far more aware of computers and their inner workings now than I ever was and maybe a little more patient with them. Maybe.
Rating:
Summary: I learned it! I really did!
Review: I highly recommend Wallace Wang's Beginning Programming for Dummies to anyone looking to learn programming for the first time. I'm a technical writer who is terrible at math and not very bright in general. Fortunately, as Mr. Wang assures me in the first chapter, you don't have to be a math genius to be a good programmer. You just have to be curious and willing to spend a lot of time practicing. One thing that sets Dummies books apart is their ability to make the boring part of a subject (its dullness or seeming difficulty is why you need the book in the first place) seem fun. Wang employs his extensive gifts as a comedian to make memorizing terms like "REM," "CLS," and "FOR...NEXT" feel deceptively fun. After finishing this book (it took about a month of daily to semi-daily study to digest), I have a good grasp of programming in general, and QBASIC in particular. I'm making my own QBASIC program to master the language (it's a psychologist who asks you questions and then belittles you). And, because QBASIC comes free with every PC, you don't have to buy anything extra to learn it. Once I master QBASIC, I'll easily be able to move on to Visual Basic, and then maybe dabble in some C, Java, and HTML/XML.
Rating: 
Summary: Lame Political slant, syntax errors but decent otherwise
Review: I quickly tired of the authors extreme left political statements. Programming and technology should be free from politics but WANG uses almost every opportunity in his code examples to make some comment against politicans, conservatives, lawyers, wealthy people etc. Perhaps this is why there are so many syntax errors in the sample code. Keep your feelings and agenda to yourself. Another thing that kind of got on my nerves is everytime a new concept is introduced, we scrap the previous code example and start over. I like books where we keep building on the same program, adding new buttons / menus and stuff. This way we dont start over every other page and we learn how different code and objects work together. When I tried to use Libery Basic under XP and it didnt work, I downloaded the latest version from Liberty's website. While poking around in LB v4 I saw that they have some 6+ extensive tutorials included with the demo version. I almost feel like i could have gone through these LB tutorials and learned just as much and save the $25 I spent on this book. This book is decent and I dont regret buying it but I can only give it 2 stars.
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