Hello, I have become really interested in computer programming over the last few months and want to learn as much as I can about it. I want to be able to develop highly functional sites using advanced languages/technology and just develop an expertise in computers. Could you suggest a good book that introduces the basics of computer programming? Thanks, Omar
To be honest with you, I wouldn't suggest a book at all. All I can recommend to you is getting involved with absolutely anything you can. Those books are overpriced, and teach things which can be found freely on the Internet. Go ahead and experiment. Doing is the best way to learn.
Your best bet is PHP (with MySQL for the database), primarily because its free, available on most hosting providers, and can be easily installed locally on your own machine with packages such as LAMP, WAMP, XAMP, etc. (basically Windows/Linux/OSX + apache + mysql + php). But before you start jumping onto the PHP bandwagon, you're going to want to actually learn the basic, that being html, css and some javascript. Books get outdated way too easily, you can start with some web reasources. http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp (also mentions html, etc there) Course there's php.net if you need the raw user manual stuff.