Exploring Computer Science With Scheme (Undergraduate Texts in Computer Science)

Rating:
Summary: excellent university teaching tool
Review: I was a former teaching assistant this past summer for a lower division computer science course at UC Berkeley. We used this book as our primary text. From several semesters of teaching introductory computer science courses I can say that this book has proven to be an indispensible item for me. Ranging from concise writing to thought provoking questions, it is an excellent introduction to future computer scientists. I recommend this to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: excellent university teaching tool
Review: I was a former teaching assistant this past summer for a lower division computer science course at UC Berkeley. We used this book as our primary text. From several semesters of teaching introductory computer science courses I can say that this book has proven to be an indispensible item for me. Ranging from concise writing to thought provoking questions, it is an excellent introduction to future computer scientists. I recommend this to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro to Computer Science, not just to programming
Review: The first part of this book will give the basic programming 'how to' knowledge: Common abstractions and basic program design.

The second part introduces Computer Science and will show you what others have been doing with the techniques explained in the first part. It will give a panoramic view of modern CS: databases, operating systems, artificial intelligence, compilers, 'soft-computing', etc...

Only the chapter on compilers seems a bit confusing, everything else is clearly explained.

You won't need a good background in maths to follow it.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro to Computer Science, not just to programming
Review: The first part of this book will give the basic programming `how to' knowledge: Common abstractions and basic program design.

The second part introduces Computer Science and will show you what others have been doing with the techniques explained in the first part. It will give a panoramic view of modern CS: databases, operating systems, artificial intelligence, compilers, `soft-computing', etc...

Only the chapter on compilers seems a bit confusing, everything else is clearly explained.

You won't need a good background in maths to follow it.