The Student's Introduction to Mathematica and the Wolfram Language

Documentation such asa this is critical for beginning to understand the Mathematica programming language. The format can be used as a reference for experienced users or a page by page, step by step guide too rank beginners. I used this book a dozen years ago before attending Wolfram's courses to get basic operating skills. Now, having been retired 10+Myears I have a need to access these skills again, and this book has been helpful. While Mathematic becomes intuitive, it structures programming differently than other languages I am familiar with such as FORTRAn, C, Shell Scripts and so on.

For the student beginning Mathematica, this text is worth the investment. It's a good step off to a more sophisticated read.