This book is poorly written....very poorly written. I actually rate it 0 stars. The only reason I have it is because it was used as the text for an "introduction to programming" class, given at my local community college. The authors were pedantic, boring, and unclear in their use of the English language. As a beginning programmer, I felt the authors were speaking "down" at me, rather than making me excited about learning programming. I had to translate the text in this book into legible English before I could make any sense of what the authors were trying to convey...and English is my native tongue!! Rather than wasting your time with this book, I highly suggest you purchase "Teach Yourself QBasic in 21 Hours", by Sams publishing. The writing from this publisher is superb, and I keep returning to them because they're so good...