First off, I have programming experience, and am a technical professional. However, this is NOT a reference for a true beginner. The author's writing style is geared more toward someone with some familiarity rather than an absolute beginner. There are numerous mistakes in the book (on page 93 in the fourth paragraph it states if [Random $values] returns 2, the expression evaluates to King; since Tcl indices are 0-based, the correct answer from the example list {Ace King Queen Jack...} is Queen) that need to be cleaned up for a second printing. Then in the same chapter for exercise 5.1 the author uses code that has not been introduced ('info' and 'exists' in the line 'if {[info exists cards] && [lsearch ..."); this is supposed to check that a duplicate card is not created, but the code is different in the two places it is used, and then the logic is wrong! If the first two cards in this blackjack game are identical, the 'for {set i 1}' loop in Block 2 only populates the list with 1 card instead of 2.
I have not finished the book as of yet, but it does not meet my expectations of a book that is supposed to be "for the absolute beginner". The publication of the book was late to begin with; shipment from Amazon was delayed MANY weeks from what was projected when I ordered the book in July 2007. The editor/publisher/author should have spent more time checking for errors, and providing better examples. The author states that code could be written in another form, but does not provide that alternate example, which would have been very illustrative.
If you truly are a beginner, I'd recommend looking elsewhere for a learning reference.