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Summary: Very good companion as you learn to plan your program design
Review: I enjoyed this book, it presented ideas on how you can plan program designs more accurately. While you need to have a basic knowledge of programming the text is still valuable to a novice programmer.
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Summary: Excellent basic programming text
Review: I used this book in an introductory programming class shortly after it was published. It provided the most "bang for the buck." It covers the basics of programming in a thorough manner, providing coverage of basic control sturctures and arrays. I highly recommend this book. Its value lies in the fact that it can be adapted to any programming language, since the topics covered are germain and found in all programming languages. It is an excellent introduction to programming and computer languages. Master the topics covered here, and you will have a handle to program in any computer programming language.
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Summary: Excellent basic programming text
Review: I used this book in an introductory programming class shortly after it was published. It provided the most "bang for the buck." It covers the basics of programming in a thorough manner, providing coverage of basic control sturctures and arrays. I highly recommend this book. Its value lies in the fact that it can be adapted to any programming language, since the topics covered are germain and found in all programming languages. It is an excellent introduction to programming and computer languages. Master the topics covered here, and you will have a handle to program in any computer programming language.
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Summary: An excellent approach to structured programming design
Review: Ms Robertson's book is an excellent first text in program design problem solving. It offers easily understood techniques, in an almost cookbook fashion, to employ in analyzing and designing a program. Taking you from the basic steps to designing a simple program to modular construction in larger programs, the text guides the student step by step to success. On the negative side, while there is mention of object oriented programming in the text, very little is developed in this area. I would truly like to see a modest improvement of the text in this area. A step by step approach to object development and interaction in program design is sorely needed. In addition, while pseudocode is thoroughly explored as a valuable tool in program design, and N-S diagrams are addressed in a supplemental section, little is addressed vis-a-vis flow charts. All-in-all, however, this book's value far exceeds its modest price.
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Summary: Simple Program Design, Second Edition.
Review: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to comment on my book, Simple Program Design, Second Edition. I was most interested to read your reviews about my book at you website because I am currently writing the Third Edition of Simple Program Design, due to be released later this year.The third edition of Simple Program Design has quite a number of changes, which may interest you and your readers. Of particular interest (because one of your reviewers found this to be a problem) is that the third edition provides ten programming problems, of increasing complexity, at the end of each chapter, so that teachers now have a wider choice of exercises for their students, to match to their abilities. I have tried to make sure that no prior knowledge of a topic is required before students attempt these exercises. There is also a new chapter on array processing, covering single and multi-dimensional arrays, together with common operations on arrays and algorithms for their manipulation and the chapter on Modularisation has been extended to cover two chapters, with communication between modules and parameter passing introduced at an earlier stage in the design process. There are two new chapters covering Object-Oriented Design methodology which introduce the concepts of object-oriented design and the steps involved in creating an object-oriented solution to a problem. The third edition also offers two alternate methods of representing algorithms: Flowcharts, a new chapter, and Nassi-Schneiderman Diagrams. All algorithms developed in pseudocode in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 have also been presented again using flowcharts and Nassi-Schneiderman Diagrams. I hope that your readers will be interested in purchasing the Third edition of Simple Program Design, when it is released later this year.
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Summary: The 3rd edition of Simple Program Design
Review: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to comment on my book, Simple Program Design, Third Edition. This new edition has quite a number of changes, which may interest your readers. Of particular interest is the ten programming problems, of increasing complexity, at the end of each chapter, so that teachers now have a wider choice of exercises for their students, to match to their abilities. I have tried to make sure that no prior knowledge of a topic is required before students attempt these exercises. There is also a new chapter on array processing, covering single and multi-dimensional arrays, together with common operations on arrays and algorithms for their manipulation. The chapter on Modularisation has been extended to cover two chapters, with communication between modules and parameter passing introduced at an earlier stage in the design process. There are two new chapters covering Object-Oriented Design methodology which introduce the concepts of object-oriented design and the steps involved in creating an object-oriented solution to a problem. The third edition also offers two alternate methods of representing algorithms: Flowcharts, a new chapter, and Nassi-Schneiderman Diagrams. All algorithms developed in pseudocode in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 have also been presented again using flowcharts and Nassi-Schneiderman Diagrams. I hope that your readers enjoy the Third edition of Simple Program Design, which I believe is my best!
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Summary: Read this book BEFORE any other programming book
Review: The problem with most books that purport to teach how to program, is that they really only teach the syntax of the programming language their book is about. If you have never programmed before, you must FIRST learn how to think like a programmer before delving into the intricacies of a particular programming language. This is where this book excels. This books starts you out on the right footing and gently leads you to develop the proper frame of mind and method to become a programmer. Once you master how to think like a programmer, then you are ready to learn ANY procedural programming language. If you rush into programming, you could develop bad habits that are almost impossible to break. A little patience now, and the road ahead will be much easier.
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Summary: Great book about how to create software programs
Review: There are tons of books that discuss the syntax of some specific language or a set of API's but it is very hard to find a good book about how you use those tools to create useful software. Just because a person is skilled with a hammer doesn't mean they can build a house. Knowing a software language and knowing some API's is like having a hammer, saw, nails and wood. You still have to know how to plan and build the structure. This book gives you the fundamental tools and also helps a person understand how use them effectively. I also appreciate that the author is able to get the job done in less than 200 very effective pages. Why read a 1000 pages if you can get to the heart of a topic with less than 200?
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Summary: initialization
Review: This book clarly explains the steps in designing programs and provides language for the reader to understand programmers jargond. One thing to remember that the text does not "drive home" is the need to initialize variables. This is a vital part of pseudo programming because it translates into nearly every programming language used today. Good book if you can remember that initialization is key to programming.
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Summary: Worth the Price, but not recommended
Review: This book is definitely worth the price, but having used this textbook for a class I am teaching, I would definitely not recommend this book. For the beginning student, with no programming experience, this book expects too much. The problems at the end of the chapters tend to assume prior knowledge of a topic not covered in the book. It's a nice book, but NOT for the introductory student.
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