Prologue

Recently I decided to take up programming again, this time as a hobby, and blog about my experience.

I have programmed before. I learned enough Clipper (by studying books and analysing other people's programs) to get paid to write a couple of useful database programs. So although I never had a lesson I would be classed as an intermediate-level programmer.

Clipper is a DOS-based database language derived from dB III. It was fabulous to use in its day but it is outmoded today. It will run on Windows up to XP but not 64-bit Windows 7.

Around the year 2000 I stopped writing Clipper code except for code maintenance. I didn't learn a new language, believing I was too old to compete against hotshot young programmers with computer science degrees.

But writing code can be fun. And I had some ideas for applications. So I decided to start again.

At first I thought Python might be the ideal language, but I could not find a suitable free tutorial. (It has to be free because I don't have money.)

So I decided to learn Java. I googled and  found a promising  pdf  Teach Yourself JAVA in 21 Days by Laura Lemay and Charles L. Perkins. It  was was a free download, presumably because it's an old edition dated 1996. I hope it's useful. (I haven't cracked it open yet.)

Next step is to get the software, and my journey begins...