Getting Started

If you are reading this, you are choosing to learn about programming and Computer Science. The course is delivered in conceptual topics with a primary focus on problem solving and a secondary focus on the actual coding. To be an effective programmer, you will need to know how to do the programming, but you will find it is pretty easy once you get the problem-solving issues resolved.

Your programming activities will be developed in a structured and modular way, which has two benefits: 1) it is easier to learn when you resolve smaller issues one at a time, and 2) for exactly the same reasons, this is the way it is done in industry. It turns out that using this more professional approach makes it easier to teach, and learn, the fundamentals that are truly important in a good Computer Science course.

Your primary task will be to read this reference very carefully, try out the examples you find, ask questions of your Instructor(s) as needed, and then come back and read the reference again. Nobody learns a tennis overhand by looking at one example one time.

If you are ready to dive into this action, select "Next Chapter/Section" in the left column to learn about how programming is conducted in the C programming language, and then, depending on your Operating System, you will be directed to select the appropriate section to learn about the tools you will be using as a programmer.