Art

 

Programming like other art forms, allows you to create but in programming, your power is multiplied by the speed and capabilities of the computer. You can create engaging games like World of Warcraft, Bioshock, Gears of War and Mass Effect. You can create detailed and immersive simulations like The Sims. You can write programs that connect people together: web

browsers like Chrome, email editors or chat clients, or websites like Facebook or Amazon.com. You can build apps that delight your users, taking advantage of new devices like iPhones or Android phones. Those things, of course, take time to become skilled enough to create. But even in the beginning you can write interesting software—programs that solve your math homework for you, simple games like Tetris that you can show your friends, tools to automate tedious chores or complex calculations that would otherwise take days or weeks by hand. Once you understand the basics of programming a computer— which this book will teach you—you'll have the ability to pick up the graphics or networking libraries you need to in order to write the kinds of programs that interest you, whether they're games, scientific simulations or something in between.