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Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners

Sande, Warren; Sande, Carter
ISBN-10: 1933988495
ISBN-13: 9781933988498

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Carter Sande is a bright, curious, energetic, thoughtful, and silly 8-year-old who loves computers, playing the piano, and his little sister. He has been playing and experimenting with computers from a young age. He is also interested in Pokemon, virtual pets, and magic tricks.Warren Sande is an Electronic Systems Engineer who uses Python (and other languages) in his work, and also uses it to help teach his son about computers and programming.
He holds a degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan as well as a Diploma in Communication Arts, specializing in Broadcasting, from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has taught introductory software courses to computer novices.Computer Programming for Kids gives kids--or anyone who wants to learn programming from a fresh perspective - a gentle but thorough introduction to the world of computer programming. This book uses the Python language, a free, open source language which is ideal as a teaching tool. Python was chosen because it is easy to learn, free, and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. Python is also the base language for the "One Laptop per Child" program. This book covers all the basic concepts of computer programming, and applies them to fun, interesting topics like, computer graphics, game programming, and simulations. It is aimed at kids, but anyone who wants to learn how to program a computer can use it. You don't need to know anything about programming to use the book. Just a normal user-level familiarity with how to use a computer is enough to learn from this book. You can use the book to easily learn to interact with the computer on a programming level.This book can be used at home or in a classroom setting. There is nothing like it currently on the market."Computer programming is a powerful tool for children to 'learn learning,' that is, to learn the skills of thinking and problem-solving...Children who engage in programming transfer that kind of learning to other things."--Nicholas Negoponte, the man behind the One Laptop Per Child project that hopes to put a computer in the hands of every child on earth, January 2008Your computer won't respond when you yell at it. Why not learn to talk to your computer in its own language? Whether you want to write games, start a business, or you're just curious, learning to program is a great place to start. Plus, programming is fun!Hello World! provides a gentle but thorough introduction to the world of computer programming. It's written in language a 12-year-old can follow, but anyone who wants to learn how to program a computer can use it. Even adults. Written by Warren Sande and his son, Carter, and reviewed by professional educators, this book is kid-tested and parent-approved.You don't need to know anything about programming to use the book. But you should know the basics of using a computer--e-mail, surfing the web, listening to music, and so forth. If you can start a program and save a file, you should have no trouble using this book.
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Preface
Acknowledgments
About this book
Getting Started
Installing Python
Starting Python with IDLE
Instructions, please
Interacting with Python
Time to program
Running your first program
If something goes wrong
Your second program
Remember This-Memory and Variables
Input, processing, output
Names
What's in a name?
Numbers and strings
How "variable" are they?
The new me
Basic Math
The four basic operations
Operators
Order of operations
Two more operators
Really big and really small
Types of Data
Changing types
Getting more information: type()
Type-conversion errors
Using type conversions
Input
raw_input ()
The print command and the comma
Inputting numbers
Input from the Web
GUIs-Graphical User Interfaces
What's a GUI?
Our first GUI
GUI input
Pick your flavor
The number-guessing game ... again
Other GUI pieces
Decisions, Decisions
Testing, testing
Indenting
Am I seeing double?
Other kinds of tests
What happens if the test is false?
Testing for more than one condition
Using "and"
Using "or"
Using "not"
Loop the Loop
Counting loops
Using a counting loop
A shortcut-range ()
A matter of style-loop variable names
Counting by steps
Counting without numbers
While we're on the subject ...
Bailing out of a loop-break and continue
Just for You-Comments
Adding comments
Single-line comments
End-of-line comments
Multiline comments
Commenting style
Commenting out
Game Time
Skier
Nested and Variable Loops
Nested loops
Variable loops
Variable nested loops
Even more variable nested loops
Using nested loops
Collecting Things Together-Lists
What's a list?
Creating a list
Adding things to a list
What's the dot?
Lists can hold anything
Getting items from a list
"Slicing" a list
Modifying items
Other ways of adding to a list
Deleting from a list
Searching a list
Looping through a list
Sorting lists
Mutable and immutable
Lists of lists: tables of data
Functions
Functions-the building blocks
Calling a function
Passing arguments to a function
Functions with more than one argument
Functions that return a value
Variable scope
Forcing a global
A bit of advice on naming variables
Objects
Objects in the real world
Objects in Python
Object = attributes + methods
What's the dot?
Creating objects
An example class-HotDog
Hiding the data
Polymorphism and inheritance
Thinking ahead
Modules
What's a module?
Why use modules?
Buckets of blocks
How do we create modules?
How do we use modules?
Namespaces
Standard modules
Graphics
Getting some help-Pygame
A Pygame window
Drawing in the window
Individual pixels
Images
Let's get moving!
Animation
Smoother animation
Bouncing the ball
Wrapping the ball
Sprites and Collision Detection
Sprites
Bump! Collision detection
Counting time
A New Kind of Input-Events
Events
Keyboard events
Mouse events
Timer events
Time for another game-PyPong
Sound
More help from Pygame-mixer
Making sounds versus playing sounds
Playing sounds
Controlling volume
Repeating music
Adding sounds to PyPong
More wacky sounds
Adding music to PyPong
More GUIs
Working with PythonCard
Components
Making our GUI do something
The return of event handlers
Moving the button
More useful GUIs
TempGUI
What's on the menu?
Print Formatting and Strings
New lines
Horizontal spacing-tabs
Inserting variables in strings
Number formatting
Strings 'n' things
File Input and Output
What's a file?
Filenames
File locations
Opening a file
Reading a file
Text files and binary files
Writing to a file
Saving your stuff in files: pickle
Game time again-Hangman
Take a Chance-Randomness
What's randomness?
Rolling the dice
Creating a deck of cards
Crazy Eights
Computer Simulations
Modeling the real world
Lunar Lander
Keeping time
Time objects
Saving time to a file
Virtual Pet
What's Next?
General programming
Python
Game programming and Pygame
Other Python stuff
Look around
Variable Naming Rules
Answers to Self-Test Questions
Getting Started
Remember This-Memory and Variables
Basic Math
Types of Data
Input
GUIs-Graphical User Interfaces
Decisions, Decisions
Loop the Loop
Just for You-Comments
Game Time
Nested and Variable Loops
Collecting Things Together-Lists
Functions
Objects
Modules
Graphics
Sprites and Collision Detection
A New Kind of Input-Events
Sound
More GUIs
Print Formatting and Strings
File Input and Output
Take a Chance-Randomness
Computer Simulations
Index
Warren Sande is an Electronic Systems Engineer who uses Python (and other languages) in his work, and also uses it to help teach his son about computers and programming. He holds a degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan as well as a Diploma in Communication Arts, specializing in Broadcasting, from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has taught introductory software courses to computer novices.
Carter Sande is a bright, curious, energetic, thoughtful, and silly 8-year-old who loves computers, playing the piano, and his little sister. He has been playing and experimenting with computers from a young age. He is also interested in Pokemon, virtual pets, and magic tricks.

List price: $34.99
Edition: 2008
Publisher: Manning Publications Company
Binding: Trade Paper
Pages: 440
Size: 7.25" wide x 9.25" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 1.63 lbs.
Language: English

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