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The current text provides a clear introduction to Computer Science concepts in a programming environment. It is designed as suitable use in freshman- or introductory level coursework in CS and provides the fundamental concepts as well as abstract theorems for solving computational problems. The Python language serves as a medium for illustrating and demonstrating the concepts.
List of contents
The World of Programming.- Programming Languages.- Programming Paradigms.- The Zoo of Programming Languages.- How Programming Languages are Implemented.- How a Program gets "written".- Meet Python.- Further Reading.- Exercises.- Data: The First Ingredient of a Program.- What is Data?.- What is Structured Data?.- Basic Data Types.- Basic Organization of Data: Containers.- Accessing Data or Containers by Names : Variables.- Further Reading.- Exercises.- Actions: the 2nd Ingredient of a Program.- Purpose and Scope of Actions.- Action Types.- Controlling Actions: Conditionals.- Reusable Actions: Functions.- Functional Programming Tools in Python.- Further Reading.- Exercises.- Managing the Size of a Problem.- An Action Wizard: Recursion.- Iteration.- Recursion versus Iteration.- Further Reading.- Exercises.- Complexity.- Time and Memory Complexity.- Further Reading.- Exercises.- Organizing Data.- Primitive and Composite Data Types.- Abstract Data Types.- Abstract Data Types in Python.- Further Reading.- Exercises.- Objects: Reunion of Data and Action.- The Idea behind the Object-Oriented Paradigm (OOP).- Properties of Object-Oriented Programming.- Object-Oriented Programming in Python.- Further Reading.
Summary
The current text provides a clear introduction to Computer Science concepts in a programming environment. It is designed as suitable use in freshman- or introductory level coursework in CS and provides the fundamental concepts as well as abstract theorems for solving computational problems. The Python language serves as a medium for illustrating and demonstrating the concepts.
Additional text
From the reviews:
“It is aimed at college freshmen and teaches fundamental concepts and abstract notions, starting with the basics. … the exercises are the book’s most attractive feature. There are sample programs, and the exercises ask readers to figure out the expected outputs. These are great, and could even serve as excellent job interview questions! Overall, the book serves its purpose, and its intended audience, well.” (Naga Narayanaswamy, Computing Reviews, September, 2013)
“Üçoluk and Kalkan (both, Middle East Technical Univ., Turkey) offer a self-contained, concise introduction to computer science and Python programming. The intended audience is college freshmen taking their first computer science course. … It covers basic programming in Python along with programming paradigms, data structures, and even computational complexity … . Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates.” (S. L. Tanimoto, Choice, Vol. 50 (11), July, 2013)
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From the reviews:
"It is aimed at college freshmen and teaches fundamental concepts and abstract notions, starting with the basics. ... the exercises are the book's most attractive feature. There are sample programs, and the exercises ask readers to figure out the expected outputs. These are great, and could even serve as excellent job interview questions! Overall, the book serves its purpose, and its intended audience, well." (Naga Narayanaswamy, Computing Reviews, September, 2013)
"Üçoluk and Kalkan (both, Middle East Technical Univ., Turkey) offer a self-contained, concise introduction to computer science and Python programming. The intended audience is college freshmen taking their first computer science course. ... It covers basic programming in Python along with programming paradigms, data structures, and even computational complexity ... . Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates." (S. L. Tanimoto, Choice, Vol. 50 (11), July, 2013)
