Introduction to Computing

by Sanjay J. Patel

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0072376902
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company
• Length: 526 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 7.3" x 1.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book.

This is one of the best books I have used for a computer science course. This book is really detailed. Would really recommend getting this book and keeping it for reference.

Intro to CS the way it should be done

This book is the implementation of what I have been trying to impart to my beginning students for years. It contains explanations of all of the ideas that make up the foundation of computer science. The first sections deal with the fundamentals of binary data, how numbers are represented, how arithmetic is performed, how the bitwise operations are executed, followed by the basics of digital logic. These ideas are then expanded into a simple assembly code with many control instructions. Staying at the assembly level, I/O operations, subroutines and stacks are demonstrated. In chapter 11, the transition is made to higher-level languages by the introduction of C. It is then used to illustrate variables, operators, control structures, functions, pointers and arrays; recursion, I/O in C and simple data structures. The explanations are all very well done and the topics are what should be the first set encountered by a computer science major. While the level of abstraction that most programmers work at has dramatically increased over the years, there is still no substitute for being well schooled in the fundamentals. Not only does this make it easier to move up the abstraction ladder, it also makes it possible for a programmer to function at the lower level, should the need arise. I strongly recommend this book for adoption as a text for a first course in computer science. While it is not designed to fit into the traditional mold of a first semester programming class, it will provide a much stronger foundation for the student taking their first course in CS.

Clear, easy-to-understand goodness.

I started out knowing next to nothing about Computer Architecture, and yet I was still able to, by myself, read and understand most everything in this book. The chapters are laid out intelligently, with each one building on what was taught before. The diagrams are clear and helpful, and there are plenty of tables and example problems (very clear, thoroughly worked out examples!) spread throughout. While there is a chapter or two in the middle that people who already are familiar with C might find tedious, they're pretty clearly marked and easy enough to skim through. I definitely recommend this book to any beginner wishing to learn about computer architecture.

Much improved 2nd edition

Everything that was good about the first edition is still here, and what was not-so-good has been improved--production values (page layout in particular), explanations.... If you're interested in an excellent bottoms-up approach, here it is!This is what I said about the first edition:... a good introductory book. I'm a tech writer with a background in the sciences, and used this book in a "Computers from the bottom up" class. We had an excellent teacher, and without her the obscurities of presentation would have defeated several class members. On the minus side: From a writer's point of view, what is needed is another editing pass to get rid of poor sentence sequences and poorly explained exercises. Also, it's sometimes difficult to follow examples with illustrations on one page and verbal description on another: production values need to be rethought. From a student's point of view, much of the essential information is buried in small print sections, which make the book frustrating to use. But-- on the plus side, the book, used with the excellent Power Point slides provided online, is the best thing available for a true bottoms-up approach. It discusses the basic logic components and their relationship to Boolean logic, instruction sets, and programming at a basic level. Personally, I found the LC-2 simulator great fun to use, very helpful to my understanding of "how things work".

It's Great

I am a self taught programmer, and there were large gaps in my fundamental knowledge of computers and how they operate. This book did a fantastic job in filling that void. It should be required reading for any aspiring programmer. There are a few typo's, but nothing major. The authors walk you through a basic understanding of computer architecture and binary logic, all the way to understanding C language. An easy and interesting read. It really helped me a lot!