This book presents the "great ideas" of computer science, condensing a large amount of complex material into a manageable, accessible form; it does so using the Java programming language. The book is based on the problem-oriented approach that has been so successful in traditional quantitative sciences. For example, the reader learns about database systems by coding one in Java, about system architecture by reading and writing programs in assembly language, about compilation by hand-compiling Java statements into assembly language, and about noncomputability by studying a proof of noncomputability and learning to classify problems as either computable or noncomputable. The book covers an unusually broad range of material at a surprisingly deep level. It also includes chapters on networking and security. Even the reader who pursues computer science no further will acquire an understanding of the conceptual structure of computing and information technology that every well-informed citizen should have.
Author(s): Alan W. Biermann
Edition: 1st
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 563
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 13
Studying Academic Computer Science: An Introduction......Page 18
World History and Where We Are......Page 23
Let's Create Some Web Pages......Page 24
More HTML......Page 32
We Love HTML, But . . .......Page 35
Summary......Page 36
Let's Put Some Action into Those Web Pages......Page 39
Object-Oriented Programming......Page 41
Decision Trees......Page 44
Getting Started in Programming......Page 49
Program Form and Statement Details......Page 51
Program Execution......Page 53
Interactive Programs and Buttons......Page 57
Reading and Storing Data......Page 62
Programming Decision Trees......Page 73
*The Arrow Notation and Its Uses......Page 86
*A Set of Rules for Java......Page 100
Summary......Page 102
Let's Calculate Some Numbers......Page 105
Simple Calculations......Page 106
Functions......Page 117
Looping and a Study of Functions......Page 119
Searching for the Best Value......Page 126
Storing Information in Arrays......Page 131
Finding Sums, Minima, and Maxima......Page 139
Putting Things in a Row, and a Special Characteristic of Functions......Page 145
*Putting the Functions in a Row......Page 147
Summary......Page 149
Let's Solve a Mystery......Page 153
Top-Down Programming and the Database Program......Page 154
Subroutines......Page 157
Subroutines with Internal Variables......Page 169
Subroutines with Array Parameters......Page 172
Subroutine Communication Examples......Page 178
Storing and Printing Facts for the Database......Page 182
Representing Questions and Finding Their Answers......Page 188
Assembling the Database Program and Adding Comments......Page 193
*Recursion......Page 202
Summary......Page 208
Graphics Primitives......Page 213
Let's Draw Some Pictures......Page 217
Let's Create a Class Called House......Page 221
Adding Features to the House Class......Page 225
Creating a Village......Page 229
Subclasses and the Java Class Hierarchy......Page 231
Summary......Page 235
Predicting the Future......Page 237
How Do You Win an Auto Race? A Simulation......Page 238
*Avoiding the Plague: A Simulation......Page 243
*Have You Ever Observed Evolution in Action? A Simulation......Page 246
*What Will It Look Like? A Simulation......Page 250
Summary......Page 255
The Real World......Page 257
Lessons Learned from Large-Scale Programming Projects......Page 258
Software Engineering Methodologies......Page 260
The Program Life Cycle......Page 264
Summary......Page 267
When You Buy a Computer......Page 269
A Sample Architecture: The P88 Machine......Page 270
Programming the P88 Machine......Page 274
Summary......Page 280
Enabling the Computer to Understand Java......Page 283
Syntactic Production Rules......Page 284
Attaching Semantics to the Rules......Page 290
The Semantics of Java......Page 293
*The Translation of Looping Programs......Page 302
Programming Languages......Page 311
Summary......Page 315
Use Your Imagination......Page 319
Using an Operating System......Page 322
Hardware Pragmatics......Page 324
The Operating System......Page 326
Files......Page 331
*Contention for Memory and Paging......Page 335
Summary......Page 337
What's Really Going on Here?......Page 341
Good Passwords and Cracking......Page 343
Encryption......Page 345
Modern Encryption......Page 351
Public Key Encryption......Page 352
Attacks......Page 357
Summary......Page 363
Exploration......Page 367
Layers and Local Area Networks ( LANs)......Page 368
Wide Area Networks......Page 372
The Internet Protocol ( IP) Layer and Above......Page 374
*More on Addressing......Page 376
Networked Servers......Page 378
More Network-Based Applications......Page 379
The Changing Internet......Page 381
Summary......Page 382
On the Limitations of Computer Science......Page 385
Program Execution Time......Page 386
Tractable Computations......Page 387
Intractable Computations......Page 394
Some Practical Problems with Very Expensive Solutions......Page 399
Diagnosing Tractable and Intractable Problems......Page 404
*Approximate Solutions to Intractable Problems......Page 406
Summary......Page 407
Using Many Processors Together......Page 411
Parallel Computation......Page 412
Communicating Processes......Page 417
Parallel Computation on a Saturated Machine......Page 422
Variations on Architecture......Page 425
*Connectionist Architectures......Page 427
*Learning the Connectionist Weights......Page 434
Summary......Page 441
On the Existence of Noncomputable Functions......Page 445
Programs That Read Programs......Page 450
Solving the Halting Problem......Page 453
Examples of Noncomputable Problems......Page 458
*Proving Noncomputability......Page 460
Summary......Page 464
The Dream......Page 467
Representing Knowledge......Page 470
Understanding......Page 472
Learning......Page 479
Frames......Page 484
An Application: Natural Language Processing......Page 486
Reasoning......Page 493
Game Playing......Page 503
*Game Playing: Historical Remarks......Page 508
Expert Systems......Page 511
Perspective......Page 518
Summary......Page 523
Appendix: The IntField and DoubleField Classes......Page 525
Readings......Page 533
Index......Page 537
