(1) If you count HTML as a programming language, then I had about 3 hours of HTML under my belt when I first started reading this book. Which is to say I unders

(1) If you count HTML as a programming language, then I had about 3 hours of HTML under my belt when I first started reading this book. Which is to say I understood nothing nothing about programming when I picked this up. I have a method for learning new domains, and a part of that method includes skimming intro books to find ones that seem well put together. So, I had also blitz skimmed a number of books before finding this one. One thing I noticed right away from this book was that it felt more like a normal textbook than most of the books I was skimming. (2) This is not an easy question to answer, because it includes a lot of speculation, but I'll try. For me, at least, it was important to understand - in some rough sense - the nature of the concepts. Obviously, there is plenty more to the nature of the following basic concepts than what I provide, but here's the way I was perceiving the concepts: Variables - being able to name and rename data (or code) and use different things you've named Conditionals - run code under certain conditions Loops - run the same code multiple times under certain conditions Functions - reuse the same code at different points in time Lists/Arrays - save code (or data) to later be used and/or manipulated Looking back on this textbook, as well as the other material I read where lists/arrays were presented very early, I just think it was more natural to think about code reuse before thinking about storing stuff for use and manipulation. Just my two cents.