I have just finished writing a free eBook series for beginning programmers which are based on the 6502. They use an old-school approach for teaching computer fundamentals and they are in the form of a story so that high school age readers will not become bored so quickly while reading them.

I teach in a Computer Engineering Technology program in a university in Ohio, USA and I am using these eBooks in a class which is taught to incoming freshman and also to high school students throughout our state via distance learning.

So far the response to the books has been very positive and I am pleased that they allow new programmers to learn how a computer works at its lowest levels the way it use to be taught in the late 1970s and in the 1980s.

Here is a link to the website which contains the books if anyone is interested in looking at them or passing them along to a beginning programmer:

http://professorandpat.org

Ted Kosan
tkosan-at-yahoo.com

Hmm... There appears to be something wrong with the web server configuration. Although it is a proper PDF file, my browser _refuses_ to let me launch Acrobat Reader at the point of download, because it is coming through with an incorrect MIME type.

I noticed that there will be a series on Linux as well? That seems quite a jump from computer programming newbies.

I was thinking of writing my own computer programming books when my Kestrel design achieves a certain level of usable completion and stability.

I've read the first eBook (gateway to cyberspace). So far, it looks good! It's been a long time since I've seen a book that concentrated on the true fundamentals of what's going on.

kc5tj wrote:



Hmmm, I will have to look into this...





The series is already finished and I ran a class of 30 high school students through it last Spring. I have not uploaded the Linux eBooks yet because I am updating them to a newer release of Gentoo.

I agree that one would think that Linux would be too advanced a topic for newbies, but I used the same "carefully explain everything" approach with the Linux books as I did with the programming books and almost everyone in the class was able to manually install Linux. I even had a 13 year old use the books to install Linux and he did not have any major problems.





I just read your Kestrel page and I think the project looks very interesting. I think that the right type of board combined with a well-written book would have significant potential as an educational package.

The approach I have taken with my books is to start the reader with a Java-based 6502 emulator on a PC and then have them move to the same Java emulator running on a PIC. I have found that 6502 assembly language is much easier to learn than the assembly language for any of the popular microcontrollers. Therefore, I have the microcontroller emulate a 6502 while they are learning about microcontrollers and when they have gained a certain level of experience, they can remove the emulator and learn the native assembly language of the microcontroller.

But the drawback of this approach is that the person is not exposed to address buses, data buses, chip selects, etc. Kestrel does not have this drawback.

Ted

I always considered my self fortunate that the first computer programming
book I got was:

"Scientific and Engineering Problem-solving with the Computer"

http://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Engine ... 0137958072

by William R. Bennett, Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Bennett,_Jr.

It is, by far, the most engaging book on computer programming
that I've run into.

The problem is, it's not really a book on progamming. It's more like
'fun things to do with a computer' and sort of follows the BASIC
philosophy (and it uses BASIC) in that it gives you just enough to do
stuff with the computer and then proceeds to do fun things.

I've often thought that if it were in some better language (FORTH
or may be PASCAL or something) and snuck in a little more
programming as programming (instead of just as getting the computer
to do stuff) it would be a great introduction to programming (or greater
introduction, I certainly consider it the best introduction to programming
computers that I've seen)

I'm suprised it's not better known and often wish I had the wits to
augment it.

It's some what dated now and (I believe) long out of print, but I'd
recommend it to anyone as, if nothing else, an excellent example
of what a programming book and particularly an introduction to
progamming could be.

It's just a fun read