Chapman & Hall/CRC Textbooks in Computing – serie

Most information systems textbooks overwhelm business students with overly technical information they may not need in their careers. This textbook takes a new approach to the required information systems course for business majors. For each topic covered, the text highlights key "Take-Aways" that alert students to material they will need to remember during their careers. Sections titled "Where You Fit In" and "Why This Chapter Matters" explain how the topics being covered will impact students on the job. Review questions, discussion questions, and summaries are also included. This second edition is updated to include new technology, along with a new running case study.Key features:Single-mindedly for business students who are not technical specialistsDoesn’t try to prepare IS professionals; other courses will do thatStresses the enabling technologies and application areas that matter the most todayBased on the author’s real-world experienceUp to date regarding technology and tomorrow’s business needsThis is the book the author—and, more importantly, his students—wishes he had when he started teaching. Dr. Mallach holds degrees in engineering from Princeton and MIT, and in business from Boston University. He worked in the computer industry for two decades, as Director of Strategic Planning for a major computer firm and as co-founder/CEO of a computer marketing consulting firm. He taught information systems in the University of Massachusetts (Lowell and Dartmouth) business schools for 18 years, then at Rhode Island College following his retirement. He consults in industry and serves as Webmaster for his community, in between hiking and travel with his wife.

Most information systems textbooks overwhelm business students with overly technical information they may not need in their careers. This textbook takes a new approach to the required information systems course for business majors. For each topic covered, the text highlights key "Take-Aways" that alert students to material they will need to remember during their careers. Sections titled "Where You Fit In" and "Why This Chapter Matters" explain how the topics being covered will impact students on the job. Review questions, discussion questions, and summaries are also included. This second edition is updated to include new technology, along with a new running case study.Key features:Single-mindedly for business students who are not technical specialistsDoesn’t try to prepare IS professionals; other courses will do thatStresses the enabling technologies and application areas that matter the most todayBased on the author’s real-world experienceUp to date regarding technology and tomorrow’s business needsThis is the book the author—and, more importantly, his students—wishes he had when he started teaching. Dr. Mallach holds degrees in engineering from Princeton and MIT, and in business from Boston University. He worked in the computer industry for two decades, as Director of Strategic Planning for a major computer firm and as co-founder/CEO of a computer marketing consulting firm. He taught information systems in the University of Massachusetts (Lowell and Dartmouth) business schools for 18 years, then at Rhode Island College following his retirement. He consults in industry and serves as Webmaster for his community, in between hiking and travel with his wife.

Cybersecurity: A Practical Engineering Approach introduces the implementation of a secure cyber architecture, beginning with the identification of security risks. It then builds solutions to mitigate risks by considering the technological justification of the solutions as well as their efficiency. The process follows an engineering process model. Each module builds on a subset of the risks, discussing the knowledge necessary to approach a solution, followed by the security control architecture design and the implementation. The modular approach allows students to focus on more manageable problems, making the learning process simpler and more attractive.

"Havill's problem-driven approach introduces algorithmic concepts in context and motivates students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds." -- Janet Davis, Associate Professor and Microsoft Chair of Computer Science, Whitman College "This book looks really great and takes exactly the approach I think should be used for a CS 1 course. I think it really fills a need in the textbook landscape." -- Marie desJardins, Dean of the College of Organizational, Computational, and Information Sciences, Simmons University"Discovering Computer Science is a refreshing departure from introductory programming texts, offering students a much more sincere introduction to the breadth and complexity of this ever-growing field." -- James Deverick, Senior Lecturer, The College of William and Mary"This unique introduction to the science of computing guides students through broad and universal approaches to problem solving in a variety of contexts and their ultimate implementation as computer programs." -- Daniel Kaplan, DeWitt Wallace Professor, Macalester College Discovering Computer Science: Interdisciplinary Problems, Principles, and Python Programmingis a problem-oriented introduction to computational problem solving and programming in Python, appropriate for a first course for computer science majors, a more targeted disciplinary computing course or, at a slower pace, any introductory computer science course for a general audience.Realizing that an organization around language features only resonates with a narrow audience, this textbook instead connects programming to students’ prior interests using a range of authentic problems from the natural and social sciences and the digital humanities. The presentation begins with an introduction to the problem-solving process, contextualizing programming as an essential component. Then, as the book progresses, each chapter guides students through solutions to increasingly complex problems, using a spiral approach to introduce Python language features.The text also places programming in the context of fundamental computer science principles, such as abstraction, efficiency, testing, and algorithmic techniques, offering glimpses of topics that are traditionally put off until later courses.This book contains 30 well-developed independent projects that encourage students to explore questions across disciplinary boundaries, over 750 homework exercises, and 300 integrated reflection questions engage students in problem solving and active reading.The accompanying website — https://www.discoveringcs.net — includes more advanced content, solutions to selected exercises, sample code and data files, and pointers for further exploration.

Computer Systems Architecture provides IT professionals and students with the necessary understanding of computer hardware. It addresses the ongoing issues related to computer hardware and discusses the solutions supplied by the industry.The book describes trends in computing solutions that led to the current available infrastructures, tracing the initial need for computers to recent concepts such as the Internet of Things. It covers computers’ data representation, explains how computer architecture and its underlying meaning changed over the years, and examines the implementations and performance enhancements of the central processing unit (CPU). It then discusses the organization, hierarchy, and performance considerations of computer memory as applied by the operating system and illustrates how cache memory significantly improves performance.The author proceeds to explore the bus system, algorithms for ensuring data integrity, input and output (I/O) components, methods for performing I/O, various aspects relevant to software engineering, and nonvolatile storage devices, such as hard drives and technologies for enhancing performance and reliability. He also describes virtualization and cloud computing and the emergence of software-based systems’ architectures.Accessible to software engineers and developers as well as students in IT disciplines, this book enhances readers’ understanding of the hardware infrastructure used in software engineering projects. It enables readers to better optimize system usage by focusing on the principles used in hardware systems design and the methods for enhancing performance.

"Havill's problem-driven approach introduces algorithmic concepts in context and motivates students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds." -- Janet Davis, Associate Professor and Microsoft Chair of Computer Science, Whitman College "This book looks really great and takes exactly the approach I think should be used for a CS 1 course. I think it really fills a need in the textbook landscape." -- Marie desJardins, Dean of the College of Organizational, Computational, and Information Sciences, Simmons University"Discovering Computer Science is a refreshing departure from introductory programming texts, offering students a much more sincere introduction to the breadth and complexity of this ever-growing field." -- James Deverick, Senior Lecturer, The College of William and Mary"This unique introduction to the science of computing guides students through broad and universal approaches to problem solving in a variety of contexts and their ultimate implementation as computer programs." -- Daniel Kaplan, DeWitt Wallace Professor, Macalester College Discovering Computer Science: Interdisciplinary Problems, Principles, and Python Programmingis a problem-oriented introduction to computational problem solving and programming in Python, appropriate for a first course for computer science majors, a more targeted disciplinary computing course or, at a slower pace, any introductory computer science course for a general audience.Realizing that an organization around language features only resonates with a narrow audience, this textbook instead connects programming to students’ prior interests using a range of authentic problems from the natural and social sciences and the digital humanities. The presentation begins with an introduction to the problem-solving process, contextualizing programming as an essential component. Then, as the book progresses, each chapter guides students through solutions to increasingly complex problems, using a spiral approach to introduce Python language features.The text also places programming in the context of fundamental computer science principles, such as abstraction, efficiency, testing, and algorithmic techniques, offering glimpses of topics that are traditionally put off until later courses.This book contains 30 well-developed independent projects that encourage students to explore questions across disciplinary boundaries, over 750 homework exercises, and 300 integrated reflection questions engage students in problem solving and active reading.The accompanying website — https://www.discoveringcs.net — includes more advanced content, solutions to selected exercises, sample code and data files, and pointers for further exploration.

An Active Learning Approach to Teaching the Main Ideas in Computing Explorations in Computing: An Introduction to Computer Science and Python Programming teaches computer science students how to use programming skills to explore fundamental concepts and computational approaches to solving problems. Tbook gives beginning students an introduction to computer science concepts and computer programming. Designed for CS0 and CS1 courses, it is very well suited for alternative lecture styles, including flipped classrooms.Prepares Students for Advanced Work in Computer ScienceA revised and updated version of the author’s Explorations in Computing: An Introduction to Computer Science, this text incorporates two major differences. It now uses Python, instead of Ruby, as the lab software so that students can seamlessly transition from introductory projects to more advanced studies in later courses. The book also introduces Python programming, providing students with sufficient programming skills so they can implement their own programs.Practical, Step-by-Step ProjectsThe interactive lab projects in each chapter allow students to examine important ideas in computer science, particularly how algorithms offer computational solutions to problems. Students can type expressions, view results, and run experiments that help them understand the concepts in a hands-on way.Web ResourcesThe Python software modules for each lab project are available on the author’s website. The modules include data files and sample Python code that students can copy and modify. In addition, the site provides a lab manual of installation instructions and tips for editing programs and running commands in a terminal emulator.

A Concise Introduction to Programming in Python, Second Edition provides a hands-on and accessible introduction to writing software in Python, with no prior programming experience required.The Second Edition was thoroughly reorganized and rewritten based on classroom experience to incorporate: A spiral approach, starting with turtle graphics, and then revisiting concepts in greater depth using numeric, textual, and image data Clear, concise explanations written for beginning students, emphasizing core principles A variety of accessible examples, focusing on key concepts Diagrams to help visualize new concepts New sections on recursion and exception handling, as well as an earlier introduction of lists, based on instructor feedbackThe text offers sections designed for approximately one class period each, and proceeds gradually from procedural to object-oriented design. Examples, exercises, and projects are included from diverse application domains, including finance, biology, image processing, and textual analysis. It also includes a brief "How-To" sections that introduce optional topics students may be interested in exploring.The text is written to be read, making it a good fit in flipped classrooms. Designed for either classroom use or self-study, all example programs and solutions to odd-numbered exercises (except for projects) are available at: http://www.central.edu/go/conciseintro/.

A Concise Introduction to Programming in Python, Second Edition provides a hands-on and accessible introduction to writing software in Python, with no prior programming experience required.The Second Edition was thoroughly reorganized and rewritten based on classroom experience to incorporate: A spiral approach, starting with turtle graphics, and then revisiting concepts in greater depth using numeric, textual, and image data Clear, concise explanations written for beginning students, emphasizing core principles A variety of accessible examples, focusing on key concepts Diagrams to help visualize new concepts New sections on recursion and exception handling, as well as an earlier introduction of lists, based on instructor feedbackThe text offers sections designed for approximately one class period each, and proceeds gradually from procedural to object-oriented design. Examples, exercises, and projects are included from diverse application domains, including finance, biology, image processing, and textual analysis. It also includes a brief "How-To" sections that introduce optional topics students may be interested in exploring.The text is written to be read, making it a good fit in flipped classrooms. Designed for either classroom use or self-study, all example programs and solutions to odd-numbered exercises (except for projects) are available at: http://www.central.edu/go/conciseintro/.

Avoiding heavy mathematics and lengthy programming details, Digital Image Processing: An Algorithmic Approach with MATLAB® presents an easy methodology for learning the fundamentals of image processing. The book applies the algorithms using MATLAB®, without bogging down students with syntactical and debugging issues.One chapter can typically be completed per week, with each chapter divided into three sections. The first section presents theoretical topics in a very simple and basic style with generic language and mathematics. The second section explains the theoretical concepts using flowcharts to streamline the concepts and to form a foundation for students to code in any programming language. The final section supplies MATLAB codes for reproducing the figures presented in the chapter. Programming-based exercises at the end of each chapter facilitate the learning of underlying concepts through practice.This textbook equips undergraduate students in computer engineering and science with an essential understanding of digital image processing. It will also help them comprehend more advanced topics and sophisticated mathematical material in later courses. A color insert is included in the text while various instructor resources are available on the author’s website.

Praise for the first edition:"The well-written, comprehensive book [is] aiming to become a de facto reference for the language and its features and capabilities. The pace is appropriate for beginners; programming concepts are introduced progressively through a range of examples and then used as tools for building applications in various domains, including sophisticated data structures and algorithms Highly recommended. Students of all levels, faculty, and professionals/practitioners.D. Papamichail, University of Miami in CHOICE Magazine Mark Lewis Introduction to the Art of Programming Using Scala was the first textbook to use Scala for introductory CS courses. Fully revised and expanded, the new edition of this popular text has been divided into two books. Object-Orientation, Abstraction, and Data Structures Using Scala, Second Edition is intended to be used as a textbook for a second or third semester course in Computer Science.The Scala programming language provides powerful constructs for expressing both object orientation and abstraction. This book provides students with these tools of object orientation to help them structure solutions to larger, more complex problems, and to expand on their knowledge of abstraction so that they can make their code more powerful and flexible. The book also illustrates key concepts through the creation of data structures, showing how data structures can be written, and the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Libraries that provide the functionality needed to do real programming are also explored in the text, including GUIs, multithreading, and networking. The book is filled with end-of-chapter projects and exercises, and the authors have also posted a number of different supplements on the book website. Video lectures for each chapter in the book are also available on YouTube. The videos show constr

A student-friendly text, A Concise Introduction to Data Structures Using Java takes a developmental approach, starting with simpler concepts first and then building toward greater complexity. Important topics, such as linked lists, are introduced gradually and revisited with increasing depth. More code and guidance are provided at the beginning, allowing students time to adapt to Java while also beginning to learn data structures. As students develop fluency in Java, less code is provided and more algorithms are outlined in pseudocode. The text is designed to support a second course in computer science with an emphasis on elementary data structures. The clear, concise explanations encourage students to read and engage with the material, while partial implementations of most data structures give instructors the flexibility to develop some methods as examples and assign others as exercises. The book also supplies an introductory chapter on Java basics that allows students who are unfamiliar with Java to quickly get up to speed. The book helps students become familiar with how to use, design, implement, and analyze data structures, an important step on the path to becoming skilled software developers.

A Beginner‘s Guide to Computer Programming Start Programming Using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is a manual for undergraduate students in engineering and the natural sciences to discover how computer programming works. Using a dialog format between two students and a professor, the text teaches students how the mainstream web languages HTML, CSS, and JavaScript interact and how to harness their capabilities in practical settings.Each chapter focuses on a specific theme supported by a gradual development of engaging worked examples of live web documents and applications using the three languages. Students can follow most of the examples and experiments using any modern browser and plain text editor. A practical homework problem is included at the end of every chapter and then is discussed at the beginning of the next chapter. In addition, a related keywords list helps students review key topics.By focusing on important established principles and concrete examples, this introductory book shows students how to write cleaner and more easily maintainable code. It augments the basic language syntax and rules with contents and structure while keeping the material simple and manageable.

Most information systems textbooks overwhelm business students with overly technical information they may not need in their careers. Information Systems: What Every Business Student Needs to Know takes a new approach to the required information systems course for business majors.For each topic covered, the text highlights key "Take-Aways" that alert students to material they will need to remember during their careers. Sections titled "Where You Fit In" and "Why This Chapter Matters" explain how the topics being covered will impact students once they are on the job. Review questions, discussion questions, and summaries are also included in each chapter to reinforce learning. The book is presented in four parts:About Information Systems: covers general information systems concepts that students need to know as they learn about real-world information systems Technology Fundamentals: supplies a foundation in information technology that fills the gaps most students have when they learn through trial and error Information Systems at Work: details the nitty-gritty of how actual companies use information systems in the real word Managing Information Systems: addresses the issues involved in selecting, developing, and managing information systemsThe text includes a running case study that follows two management information systems majors in college. As the two main characters study the information systems of a medical practice, students follow along and learn valuable lessons as they see how the case plays out. In addition to the running case study, each chapter also includes two mini cases that illustrate the concepts discussed in that chapter.Maintaining a focus on the essential concepts students must know before entering the business world, this book covers the subject of information systems in a manner that students will find accessible.<

Describing both the practical details of interest to students and the high-level concepts and abstractions highlighted by faculty, The Tao of Computing, Second Edition presents a comprehensive introduction to computers and computer technology. This edition updates its popular predecessor with new research exercises and expanded discussion questions. It uses a question-and-answer format to provide thoughtful answers to the many practical questions that students have about computing. Among the questions answered, the book explains:What capabilities computers have in helping people solve problems and what limitations need to be considered Why machines act the way they do What is involved in getting computers to interact with networksThe book offers a down-to-earth overview of fundamental computer fluency topics, from the basics of how a computer is organized and an overview of operating systems to a description of how the Internet works. The second edition describes new technological advances including social media applications and RSS feeds.

Since computer scientists make decisions every day that have societal context and influence, an understanding of society and computing together should be integrated into computer science education. Showing students what they can do with their computing degree, Computers and Society: Computing for Good uses concrete examples and case studies to highlight the positive work of real computing professionals and organizations from around the world. Each chapter profiles a corporation, nonprofit organization, or entrepreneur involved in computing-centric activities that clearly benefit society or the environment, including cultural adaptation in a developing country, cutting-edge medicine and healthcare, educational innovation, endangered species work, and help for overseas voters. The coverage of computing topics spans from social networking to high-performance computing. The diversity of people and activities in these profiles gives students a broad vision of what they can accomplish after graduation. Pedagogical FeaturesEncouraging students to engage actively and critically with the material, the book offers a wealth of pedagogical sections at the end of each chapter. Questions of varying difficulty ask students to apply the material to themselves or their surroundings and to think critically about the material from the perspective of a future computing professional. The text also gives instructors the option to incorporate individual projects, team projects, short projects, and semester-long projects. Other resources for instructors and students are available at www.computers-and-society.com Visit the author‘s blog at http://computing4society.blogspot.com

A Functional Start to Computing with Python enables students to quickly learn computing without having to use loops, variables, and object abstractions at the start. Requiring no prior programming experience, the book draws on Python‘s flexible data types and operations as well as its capacity for defining new functions. Along with the specifics of Python, the text covers important concepts of computing, including software engineering motivation, algorithms behind syntax rules, advanced functional programming ideas, and, briefly, finite state machines.Taking a student-friendly, interactive approach to teach computing, the book addresses more difficult concepts and abstractions later in the text. The author presents ample explanations of data types, operators, and expressions. He also describes comprehensions the powerful specifications of lists and dictionaries before introducing loops and variables. This approach helps students better understand assignment syntax and iteration by giving them a mental model of sophisticated data first.Web ResourceThe book‘s supplementary website at http://functionalfirstpython.com/ provides many ancillaries, including:Interactive flashcards on Python language elements Links to extra support for each chapter Unit testing and programming exercises An interactive Python stepper tool Chapter-by-chapter points Material for lectures

With its flexibility for programming both small and large projects, Scala is an ideal language for teaching beginning programming. Yet there are no textbooks on Scala currently available for the CS1/CS2 levels. Introduction to the Art of Programming Using Scala presents many concepts from CS1 and CS2 using a modern, JVM-based language that works well for both programming in the small and programming in the large. The book progresses from true programming in the small to more significant projects later, leveraging the full benefits of object orientation. It first focuses on fundamental problem solving and programming in the small using the REPL and scripting environments. It covers basic logic and problem decomposition and explains how to use GUIs and graphics in programs. The text then illustrates the benefits of object-oriented design and presents a large collection of basic data structures showing different implementations of key ADTs along with more atypical data structures. It also introduces multithreading and networking to provide further motivating examples. By using Scala as the language for both CS1 and CS2 topics, this textbook gives students an easy entry into programming small projects as well as a firm foundation for taking on larger-scale projects. Many student and instructor resources are available at www.programmingusingscala.net

Teach Your Students How to Use Computing to Explore Powerful and Creative IdeasIn the twenty-first century, computers have become indispensable in music making, distribution, performance, and consumption. Making Music with Computers: Creative Programming in Python introduces important concepts and skills necessary to generate music with computers. It interweaves computing pedagogy with musical concepts and creative activities, showing students how to integrate the creativity and design of the arts with the mathematical rigor and formality of computer science.The book provides an introduction to creative software development in the Python programming language. It uses innovative music-creation activities to illustrate introductory computer programming concepts, including data types, algorithms, operators, iteration, lists, functions, and classes. The authors also cover GUIs, event-driven programming, big data, sonification, MIDI programming, client‘server programming, recursion, fractals, and complex system dynamics.Requiring minimal musical or programming experience, the text is designed for courses in introductory computer science and computing in the arts. It helps students learn computer programming in a creative context and understand how to build computer music applications. Also suitable for self-study, the book shows musicians and digital music enthusiasts how to write music software and create algorithmic music compositions. Web ResourceA supplementary website (http://jythonMusic.org) provides a music library and other software resources used in the text. The music library is an extension of the jMusic library and incorporates other cross-platform programming tools. The website also offers example course and associated media resources.

Avoiding heavy mathematics and lengthy programming details, Digital Image Processing: An Algorithmic Approach with MATLAB® presents an easy methodology for learning the fundamentals of image processing. The book applies the algorithms using MATLAB®, without bogging down students with syntactical and debugging issues.One chapter can typically be completed per week, with each chapter divided into three sections. The first section presents theoretical topics in a very simple and basic style with generic language and mathematics. The second section explains the theoretical concepts using flowcharts to streamline the concepts and to form a foundation for students to code in any programming language. The final section supplies MATLAB codes for reproducing the figures presented in the chapter. Programming-based exercises at the end of each chapter facilitate the learning of underlying concepts through practice.This textbook equips undergraduate students in computer engineering and science with an essential understanding of digital image processing. It will also help them comprehend more advanced topics and sophisticated mathematical material in later courses. A color insert is included in the text while various instructor resources are available on the author’s website.

With more substantial funding from research organizations and industry, numerous large-scale applications, and recently developed technologies, the Semantic Web is quickly emerging as a well-recognized and important area of computer science. While Semantic Web technologies are still rapidly evolving, Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies focuses on the established foundations in this area that have become relatively stable over time. It thoroughly covers basic introductions and intuitions, technical details, and formal foundations.The book concentrates on Semantic Web technologies standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium: RDF and SPARQL enable data exchange and querying, RDFS and OWL provide expressive ontology modeling, and RIF supports rule-based modeling. The text also describes methods for specifying, querying, and reasoning with ontological information. In addition, it explores topics that are clearly beyond foundations, such as tools, applications, and engineering aspects.Written by highly respected researchers with a deep understanding of the material, this text centers on the formal specifications of the subject and supplies many pointers that are useful for employing Semantic Web technologies in practice.The book has an accompanying website with supplemental information.

Flexible, Reliable Software: Using Patterns and Agile Development guides students through the software development process. By describing practical stories, explaining the design and programming process in detail, and using projects as a learning context, the text helps readers understand why a given technique is required and why techniques must be combined to overcome the challenges facing software developers.The presentation is pedagogically organized as a realistic development story in which customer requests require introducing new techniques to combat ever-increasing software complexity. After an overview and introduction of basic terminology, the book presents the core practices, concepts, tools, and analytic skills for designing flexible and reliable software, including test-driven development, refactoring, design patterns, test doubles, and responsibility driven and compositional design. It then provides a collection of design patterns leading to a thorough discussion of frameworks, exemplified by a graphical user interface frramework (MiniDraw). The author also discusses the important topics of configuration management and systematic testing. In the last chapter, projects lead students to design and implement their own frameworks, resulting in a reliable and usable implementation of a large and complex software system complete with a graphical user interface.This text teaches how to design, program, and maintain flexible and reliable software. Installation guides, source code for the examples, exercises, and projects can be found on the author’s website.

Since computer scientists make decisions every day that have societal context and influence, an understanding of society and computing together should be integrated into computer science education. Showing students what they can do with their computing degree, Computers and Society: Computing for Good uses concrete examples and case studies to highlight the positive work of real computing professionals and organizations from around the world. Each chapter profiles a corporation, nonprofit organization, or entrepreneur involved in computing-centric activities that clearly benefit society or the environment, including cultural adaptation in a developing country, cutting-edge medicine and healthcare, educational innovation, endangered species work, and help for overseas voters. The coverage of computing topics spans from social networking to high-performance computing. The diversity of people and activities in these profiles gives students a broad vision of what they can accomplish after graduation. Pedagogical FeaturesEncouraging students to engage actively and critically with the material, the book offers a wealth of pedagogical sections at the end of each chapter. Questions of varying difficulty ask students to apply the material to themselves or their surroundings and to think critically about the material from the perspective of a future computing professional. The text also gives instructors the option to incorporate individual projects, team projects, short projects, and semester-long projects. Other resources for instructors and students are available at www.computers-and-society.com Visit the author’s blog at http://computing4society.blogspot.com

Based on the author’s introductory course at the University of Oregon, Explorations in Computing: An Introduction to Computer Science focuses on the fundamental idea of computation and offers insight into how computation is used to solve a variety of interesting and important real-world problems. Taking an active learning approach, the text encourages students to explore computing ideas by running programs and testing them on different inputs. It also features illustrations by Phil Foglio, winner of the 2009 and 2010 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Novel.Classroom-Tested MaterialThe first four chapters introduce key concepts, such as algorithms and scalability, and hone practical lab skills for creating and using objects. In the remaining chapters, the author covers "divide and conquer" as a problem solving strategy, the role of data structures, issues related to encoding data, computer architecture, random numbers, challenges for natural language processing, computer simulation, and genetic algorithms. Through a series of interactive projects in each chapter, students can experiment with one or more algorithms that illustrate the main topic. Requiring no prior experience with programming, these projects show students how algorithms provide computational solutions to real-world problems. Web ResourceThe book’s website at www.cs.uoregon.edu/eic presents numerous ancillaries. The lab manual offers step-by-step instructions for installing Ruby and the RubyLabs gem with Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. The manual includes tips for editing programs and running commands in a terminal emulator. The site also provides online documentation of all the modules in the RubyLabs gem. Once the gem is installed, the documentation can be read locally by a web browser.After working through the in-depth examples in this textbook, students will gain a better overall understanding of what computer science is about and how computer scientists think about problems.

Web 2.0 and Beyond: Principles and Technologies draws on the author’s iceberg model of Web 2.0, which places the social Web at the tip of the iceberg underpinned by a framework of technologies and ideas. The author incorporates research from a range of areas, including business, economics, information science, law, media studies, psychology, social informatics and sociology. This multidisciplinary perspective illustrates not only the wide implications of computing but also how other areas interpret what computer science is doing. After an introductory chapter, the book is divided into three sections. The first one discusses the underlying ideas and principles, including user-generated content, the architecture of participation, data on an epic scale, harnessing the power of the crowd, openness and the network effect and Web topology. The second section chronologically covers the main types of Web 2.0 services—blogs, wikis, social networks, media sharing sites, social bookmarking and microblogging. Each chapter in this section looks at how the service is used, how it was developed and the technology involved, important research themes and findings from the literature. The final section presents the technologies and standards that underpin the operation of Web 2.0 and goes beyond this to explore such topics as the Semantic Web, cloud computing and Web Science.Suitable for nonexperts, students and computer scientists, this book provides an accessible and engaging explanation of Web 2.0 and its wider context yet is still grounded in the rigour of computer science. It takes readers through all aspects of Web 2.0, from the development of technologies to current services.

Teach Your Students How to Use Computing to Explore Powerful and Creative IdeasIn the twenty-first century, computers have become indispensable in music making, distribution, performance, and consumption. Making Music with Computers: Creative Programming in Python introduces important concepts and skills necessary to generate music with computers. It interweaves computing pedagogy with musical concepts and creative activities, showing students how to integrate the creativity and design of the arts with the mathematical rigor and formality of computer science.The book provides an introduction to creative software development in the Python programming language. It uses innovative music-creation activities to illustrate introductory computer programming concepts, including data types, algorithms, operators, iteration, lists, functions, and classes. The authors also cover GUIs, event-driven programming, big data, sonification, MIDI programming, client–server programming, recursion, fractals, and complex system dynamics.Requiring minimal musical or programming experience, the text is designed for courses in introductory computer science and computing in the arts. It helps students learn computer programming in a creative context and understand how to build computer music applications. Also suitable for self-study, the book shows musicians and digital music enthusiasts how to write music software and create algorithmic music compositions.Web ResourceA supplementary website (http://jythonMusic.org) provides a music library and other software resources used in the text. The music library is an extension of the jMusic library and incorporates other cross-platform programming tools. The website also offers example course and associated media resources.

Describing both the practical details of interest to students and the high-level concepts and abstractions highlighted by faculty, The Tao of Computing, Second Edition presents a comprehensive introduction to computers and computer technology. This edition updates its popular predecessor with new research exercises and expanded discussion questions. It uses a question-and-answer format to provide thoughtful answers to the many practical questions that students have about computing. Among the questions answered, the book explains: What capabilities computers have in helping people solve problems and what limitations need to be consideredWhy machines act the way they doWhat is involved in getting computers to interact with networksThe book offers a down-to-earth overview of fundamental computer fluency topics, from the basics of how a computer is organized and an overview of operating systems to a description of how the Internet works. The second edition describes new technological advances including social media applications and RSS feeds.

With its flexibility for programming both small and large projects, Scala is an ideal language for teaching beginning programming. Yet there are no textbooks on Scala currently available for the CS1/CS2 levels. Introduction to the Art of Programming Using Scala presents many concepts from CS1 and CS2 using a modern, JVM-based language that works well for both programming in the small and programming in the large. The book progresses from true programming in the small to more significant projects later, leveraging the full benefits of object orientation. It first focuses on fundamental problem solving and programming in the small using the REPL and scripting environments. It covers basic logic and problem decomposition and explains how to use GUIs and graphics in programs. The text then illustrates the benefits of object-oriented design and presents a large collection of basic data structures showing different implementations of key ADTs along with more atypical data structures. It also introduces multithreading and networking to provide further motivating examples. By using Scala as the language for both CS1 and CS2 topics, this textbook gives students an easy entry into programming small projects as well as a firm foundation for taking on larger-scale projects. Many student and instructor resources are available at www.programmingusingscala.net

A Functional Start to Computing with Python enables students to quickly learn computing without having to use loops, variables, and object abstractions at the start. Requiring no prior programming experience, the book draws on Python’s flexible data types and operations as well as its capacity for defining new functions. Along with the specifics of Python, the text covers important concepts of computing, including software engineering motivation, algorithms behind syntax rules, advanced functional programming ideas, and, briefly, finite state machines.Taking a student-friendly, interactive approach to teach computing, the book addresses more difficult concepts and abstractions later in the text. The author presents ample explanations of data types, operators, and expressions. He also describes comprehensions—the powerful specifications of lists and dictionaries—before introducing loops and variables. This approach helps students better understand assignment syntax and iteration by giving them a mental model of sophisticated data first.Web ResourceThe book’s supplementary website at http://functionalfirstpython.com/ provides many ancillaries, including: Interactive flashcards on Python language elementsLinks to extra support for each chapterUnit testing and programming exercisesAn interactive Python stepper toolChapter-by-chapter points Material for lectures