front matter

 

preface

I began programming as a teenager, learning from fun books containing comic strips with wizards and turtles. I read magazines that showed me how to make my own simple games or cause silly effects to appear on the screen. I had fun.

But when I went to university, my books began discussing bank accounts, balances, sales departments, employees, and employers. I wondered if my life as a programmer would mean putting on a gray suit and writing code handling payroll systems. Oh, the horror!

At least half of my class hated programming with a passion. I could not blame them. Why did programming books have to be so boring, functional, and sensible?

Where was the sense of adventure and fun? Fun is underrated. Who cares if a book is silly and has stupid jokes if it makes you learn and enjoy learning?

That is one of the reasons I wrote this book. I wanted the reader to enjoy learning programming—not through cracking jokes but by working through programming examples that are interesting and fun to do.

I promise you, there will be no examples modeling a sales department. Instead, we will do things like simulate rocket launches, pretend to be Caesar sending a secret message to his army commanders using old Roman encryption techniques, and many others.

acknowledgments

about this book

Who should read this book?

How this book is organized

About the code

liveBook discussion forum

Other online resources

about the author

about the cover illustration