Learn Programming

Learn Programming is a free book aimed at readers who are interested in software development but have very little to no prior experience.

The book focuses on teaching the core principles around software development.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The code within this book is licensed under the MIT license.

Download the book in PDF form.

The print version of the book is now available. ISBN: 978-1722834920. Amazon.com link - Amazon.co.uk - Amazon.de - Amazon.ca

2018-09-03: There’s a blog post on the philosophy of the structure of this book.

Contents

• 1. The beginning
  • 1.1. Introduction
    • 1.1.1. Why this book?
    • 1.1.2. What is software?
    • 1.1.3. How does a computer work?
    • 1.1.4. OK, but seriously, how does a computer work?
    • 1.1.5. The basics of programming
    • 1.1.6. Setting up the C toolchain
    • 1.1.7. The basics of programming in C
    • 1.1.8. Learning to learn
  • 1.2. Basics of programming in Python and C
    • 1.2.1. Quadratic formula in C
    • 1.2.2. Lots of quadratic equations
    • 1.2.3. Quadratic formula in Python
    • 1.2.4. Generating input data using Python
  • 1.3. Unix shell
    • 1.3.1. Basic Unix shell usage
    • 1.3.2. Unix shell scripting
    • 1.3.3. Regular expressions
  • 1.4. Using libraries in Python
    • 1.4.1. Creating a simple web page
    • 1.4.2. Making our web page work
• 2. Stage 1
  • 2.1. Further Unix tools
    • 2.1.1. Version control
    • 2.1.2. Working with other git repositories
    • 2.1.3. Some related Unix tools
    • 2.1.4. Vim
    • 2.1.5. Programming with vim
  • 2.2. Background on programming languages and algorithms
    • 2.2.1. Typing
    • 2.2.2. Big O notation
    • 2.2.3. Array, stack, queue
  • 2.3. JavaScript
    • 2.3.1. Guessing game in JS
    • 2.3.2. JavaScript meets algorithms
  • 2.4. Intermediate C
    • 2.4.1. Records
    • 2.4.2. C and the stack
    • 2.4.3. Arrays and the stack
    • 2.4.4. Dynamic memory allocation
    • 2.4.5. C and strings
    • 2.4.6. Writing a toy web server
    • 2.4.7. Security
  • 2.5. More programming concepts using Python
    • 2.5.1. More data structures
    • 2.5.2. Object oriented programming
    • 2.5.3. JSON
    • 2.5.4. More useful Python constructs
    • 2.5.5. Callbacks and anonymous functions
    • 2.5.6. Functional programming
• 3. Stage 1.5
  • 3.1. Web development with Python and JavaScript
    • 3.1.1. HTML tables
    • 3.1.2. Redis
    • 3.1.3. High level architecture
    • 3.1.4. AJAX
    • 3.1.5. Gluing AJAX and Redis together
    • 3.1.6. The page for starting a new game
    • 3.1.7. Generating the high score table
    • 3.1.8. Some more tips and tricks
  • 3.2. Working with binary data in C
    • 3.2.1. PNG files
    • 3.2.2. Finishing our simple PNG parser
  • 3.3. Strongly, statically typed languages
    • 3.3.1. Under the hood
    • 3.3.2. Virtual machines
    • 3.3.3. The case for statically, strongly typed languages
    • 3.3.4. Established languages
    • 3.3.5. Newer languages
  • 3.4. Learning C++ using Sudoku
    • 3.4.1. Introduction to Sudoku
    • 3.4.2. Containers for Sudoku
    • 3.4.3. Sudoku Puzzle class
    • 3.4.4. Propagation and search
• 4. Stage 2
  • 4.1. Larger software
    • 4.1.1. Introduction to larger software
    • 4.1.2. Breaking software down to components
    • 4.1.3. Drawing to a screen using SDL2
    • 4.1.4. Drawing the schedule screen using SDL2
    • 4.1.5. Unix way - sched
    • 4.1.6. Unix way - parse_gps
    • 4.1.7. Unix way - merge
    • 4.1.8. Monolithic way - parsing
    • 4.1.9. Monolithic way - scheduled arrivals and GPS data
    • 4.1.10. Monolithic way - merging and putting it all together
  • 4.2. A fistful of Python exercises
    • 4.2.1. Graphs
    • 4.2.2. Parsing
  • 4.3. SQL and its relationship with online shops
    • 4.3.1. Introduction to SQL
    • 4.3.2. Adding data to an SQL database
    • 4.3.3. Querying SQL databases
    • 4.3.4. Generating a return form
    • 4.3.5. Web UI for our return form
  • 4.4. Final bits
    • 4.4.1. Software licenses
    • 4.4.2. NP-hard problems
    • 4.4.3. Concurrency
    • 4.4.4. Tech behind this book
    • 4.4.5. Further reading
    • 4.4.6. Chapter dependencies

• Solutions to exercises
  • How does a computer work?
  • Ok, but seriously, how does a computer work?
  • The basics of programming
  • The basics of programming in C
  • Quadratic formula in C
  • Lots of quadratic equations
  • Quadratic formula in Python
  • Generating input data using Python
  • Regular expressions
  • Creating a simple web page
  • Making our web page work
  • Guessing game in JS
  • JavaScript meets algorithms
  • C and the stack
  • Writing a toy web server
  • JSON
  • AJAX
  • The “start new game” page
  • Generating the high score table
  • PNG files
  • Sudoku
  • SDL
    • SDL and font handling
    • Refactoring
    • Displaying the labels
  • Unix way
  • Monolithic way
  • Graphs
  • Parsing
  • Adding data to an SQL database
  • Querying SQL databases
  • Generating a return form
  • Web UI for our return form
  • NP-hard problems
  • Concurrency

Downloads for the print version:

• Lots of quadratic equations

  • test1.txt

  • test.txt

• PNG files

  • guess1.png

• Propagation and search

  • sud1.txt

  • sud2.txt

• Introduction to larger software

  • sched.txt

  • gps.txt

  • gps_raw.txt

• Drawing the schedule screen using SDL2

  • label_info.txt

• Graphs

  • dep2.dot

• Generating a return form

  • logo.png

  • example.pdf

Contact author: ajsalonen@gmail.com