A Balanced Introduction to Computer Science

This book was required for a college course. It is a great book to learn about Computer Science in general. The book focuses on the internet and creating basic Web-pages. You will learn how to work with JavaScript and HTML code. You gain the knowledge to generally understand how to possibly make a Forum website. The book stresses text/number input, manipulation of text/numbers, and then output of text/numbers in various ways. You will learn about the history of the internet, the difference between what the Internet is and the World Wide Web. Yes, there is a difference! The drawback to this book is that there are a lot of type-o's in the code examples. You will learn enough in the book to be able to proof read the example, but it may cause you some headaches.

This book has a well balanced approach to explaining the topic of computer science. The author covers the history of computer science along with real world applications. The book breaks down key computer science topics with good diagrams and easy to understand language in addressing issues like the internet, networking, the internal workings of computers, and application development. In addition, the book provides thought provoking questions and introduces example programs that help the reader solidify their understanding of the concepts. I recommend this book to anyone trying to grasp the world of computer science.

There are generally two courses for beginners in computing. "Introduction to Computers" is usually designed for people who know very little about computers and are interested in using them in their daily life. While "Introduction to Computer Science" covers some of the same material, it is designed for those who want to know how computers work, and perhaps even take some courses in computer science. This book is written for the second type of course. Programming is introduced via HTML, which is in complete agreement with what I tell everyone who expresses an interest in learning to program. HTML is easy to understand, demonstrates some of the ideas of advanced programming and the feedback is immediate. Furthermore, initial programs can be small and since the student will most certainly be familiar with surfing the web, the results will make sense to them. What most people consider to be true programming, writing code with variables, functions, if constructs, loops and user interaction, are introduced with JavaScript. This is also a sound decision, JavaScript is powerful enough to introduce the basics of programming, builds on the previous HTML coding and is freely available. Other chapters cover a brief history of computing, how data is represented in computers, the fundamentals of digital logic and the impact computers are having on society. A large number of images are used to reinforce the text, and exercises are embedded inside the chapters with another set at the end of the chapter. If you are in the queue to teach an introduction to computer science course, then you should examine this book. It is well written and the level of presentation is appropriate for the typical student taking such a course. It could also be used for self-study.