Product: 1449344216

(Note: this is the same book that comes with current releases of the Make Raspberry Pi Starter Kit.)

The Raspberry Pi: an ultra-cheap single board computer designed for tinkerers of all ages, among other things to keep from mangling the work/school/family systems.

The book: a whirlwind tour of the computer and the Raspbian Linux distro, from rationale to hardware hacking.

It’s not quite a cookbook; it’s too basic for that, and O’Reilly is probably writing one as I write this. But if you can think of something to do with a small, ultra-cheap computer, this guide will get you up and running and point you where you need to go. It starts with setup, focusing on getting Raspbian up and running from an SD card, along with a standard display, Ethernet, and USB keyboard and mouse, along with suggestions on cases. The book then starts you off with software development using Python (the new Basic, apparently) and the Scratch graphical programming language. The last part of the book covers hardware, including webcams, the RPi’s General Purpose I/O port and interfacing with an Arduino board for more low-level concerns like robot motors and the like.

It’s hard to pin down the exact reading level of the book for young users, but a junior high schooled with a decent command of how to set up a computer should be able to handle it. There’s no index (IMHO for no particularly good reason) but a lot of links to relevant books and web content. I still think a graphing calculator is probably a little closer to the old 80s home computers I grew up on, but the RPi is capable of much more for a lot less and this is the first book you’ll need.
Rating: 4
1449344216
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