My son would like to start programming with QBasic 1.1.  He is a bright
ten-year-old (aren't they all!).  Any suggestions for a good book to get him
started?  His computer literate, but programming illiterate father is of
little help!  Thanks.

============================
Lawrence Lougheed  
Brantford, Ontario, Canada  

: My son would like to start programming with QBasic 1.1.  He is a bright
: ten-year-old (aren't they all!).  Any suggestions for a good book to get him
: started?  His computer literate, but programming illiterate father is of
: little help!  Thanks.

Well. When I first started in Basic, I used "Teach Yourself GW-BASIC" by
Bob Albrecht. Published by Osbourne McGraw-Hill. Like $20. It was pretty
simple, not going VERY deep into it. It helps with very rudimentary Basic
skills. How to form an array. What is a string. Etc etc. Use that as a
foundation to build upon until he is ready for QB45 and the QB45 Bible
which is an incredible book by the Waite Group published by Microsoft
Press. It cover every nuance of every command available for QB45 and
gives lessons while providing details.

Hope it all helps. Good luck with your kid.

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Well, when I started out, I just went through each command in the helpfile
until I knew how to use them all.
--
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for she has be{*filter*}d.   | r n---- !y+ |  Colin Pascal, aka The Corinthian

-> My son would like to start programming with QBasic 1.1.  He is a brig
-> ten-year-old (aren't they all!).  Any suggestions for a good book to
-> started?  His computer literate, but programming illiterate father is
-> little help!  Thanks.
->
-> ============================
-> Lawrence Lougheed
-> Brantford, Ontario, Canada

Good for you!  It's good that you encourage him to learn programming.
Hey, look where math and programming got Bill Gates!  Of course he got
800 on the math section of the SAT and could program in binary in his
head, but hey, ya gotta start someplace, right?  The recommended book on
programming in QuickBASIC (QBasic's big brother) is "Learn BASIC Now!"
by Microsoft Press, I believe.  It's getting a little tough to find good
"learn BASIC" books for QuickBASIC since Visual Basic has come along.
All the bookstores have switched to VB books!  If there are used
bookstores in your area, you might try looking for virtually any "Intro
to QBASIC" book published by either Sybex or SAMS.  They are generally
pretty good, altho IMHO Sybex is a bit better than SAMS.  One of the
nice things about QuickBASIC (and QBasic) is that it will run an older
style GW-BASIC program, pretty much "right out of the box."  And there
are some great "Structured Programming for GW-BASIC" books available
usually on the really cheap side.  Good luck with your son.  Remember,
for want of an encouraging word, many a dream has died in the making.

: -> My son would like to start programming with QBasic 1.1.  He is a brig
: -> ten-year-old (aren't they all!).  Any suggestions for a good book to
: -> started?  His computer literate, but programming illiterate father is
: -> little help!  Thanks.
: ->
: -> ============================
: -> Lawrence Lougheed
: -> Brantford, Ontario, Canada

There are many BASIC "books" online usually written teachers. I would do
a Veronica/ARchie search to find them on the net.

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My 10-year-old son started with "QBasic for Rookies."  I can't remember the
author (I'll look for it tonight), but the book is well written and
humorous - intended for young kids.  The author draws parallels to the
game of baseball (as close as we'll get to the game now, I guess).
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