In this third edition of the book, the authors have focused on making
fixes and improvements as identified by teachers using the book and by
anonymous reviewers. This unique book uses multimedia applications to motivate introductory computer science majors or non-majors. The book's hands-on approach shows how programs can be used to build multimedia computer science applications that include sound, graphics, music, pictures, and movies. The students learn a key set of computer science tools and topics, as well as programming skills; such as how to design and use algorithms, and practical software engineering methods. The book also includes optional coverage of HCI, as well as rudimentary data structures and databases using the user-friendly Python language for implementation. Authors Guzdial and Ericson also demonstrate how to communicate compatibly through networks and do concurrent programming.
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION
- 1 Introduction to Computer Science and Media Computation
- 2 Introduction to Programming
- 3 Modifying Pictures Using Loops
- 4 Modifying Pixels in a Range
- 5 Picture Techniques with Selection and Combination
2 SOUND
- 6 Modifying Sounds Using Loops
- 7 Modifying Samples in a Range
- 8 Making Sounds by Combining Pieces
- 9 Building Bigger Programs
3 TEXT, FILES,NETWORKS,DATABASES, AND UNIMEDIA
- 10 Creating and Modifying Text
- 11 Advanced Text Techniques: Web and Information
- 12 Making Text for the Web
4 MOVIES
- 13 Creating and Modifying Movies
5 TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
- 14 Speed
- 15 Functional Programming
- 16 Object-Oriented Programming
APPENDIX
- A Quick Reference to Python
- A.1 Variables
- A.2 Function Creation
- A.3 Loops and Conditionals
- A.4 Operators and Representation Functions
- A.5 Numeric Functions
- A.6 Sequence Operations
- A.7 String Escapes
- A.8 Useful String Methods
- A.9 Files
- A.10 Lists
- A.11 Dictionaries, Hash Tables, or Associative Arrays
- A.12 External Modules
- A.13 Classes
- A.14 Functional Methods
Bibliography
Index
Key Features
- Relevant context (Computing for Communications) — Shows students that computing has a role in their professions and that it’s worth learning.
- Manipulation of media — Includes implementing Photoshop-like effects, reversing/splicing sounds, creating animations, etc.
- Use of Python — Provides a programming language that is easier to learn and use than Java or Scheme in real commercial use (e.g., Google, Industrial Light & Magic).
- HTML — Acknowledges that students in this audience care about the Web; introduces HTML and covers writing programs that generate HTML.
- The Web as a Data Source — Teaches how to read from files, but also discusses how to write programs to directly read Web pages and distill information from there for use in other calculations, other Web pages, etc. Examples include temperature from a weather page, stock prices from a financials page.
- Real CS1 content — Meets the ACM/IEEE Computing Curriculum 2001 guidelines for a CS1 course, including coverage of procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming approaches, even though the book has been used most with non-CS majors.
- Brief JavaScript introduction — Helps students recognize that they can learn a second language.
- Full-chapter treatment of GUIs.
- Exercises at the end of each chapter — including programming projects.
- Four types of boxed items — Includes CS Key Ideas, Common Bugs, Debugging Tips, and “Making It Work” tips on how to study and be successful at computer science.
- List of learning objectives at the start of each chapter — Most chapters have two lists: One with the media learning objectives (e.g., “Be able to explain how a grayscale image can be created from a color image”) and computer science learning objectives (e.g., “Be able to explain the role of modularity in debugging”).
New To This Edition
- General freshening of the references, for example Netscape Navigator and 40 Gb hard disks are so 2005.
- Introducing more computer science terms (briefly) earlier in the book, such as algorithm, identifier, and local and global scope.
- More thorough presentation of conditionals, earlier in the book, including else and elif.
- Asection on functions and parameters, with a discussion of when to use return and when it isn’t necessary.
- More explanation of how variables work, especially with respect to objects.
- More on mirroring pictures, with a more generalized example.
- Updating the Web examples with references to accessing common, modern sites.
- More on differences between image formats.
- Removing some of the more trivial Turtle examples in Chapter 16, and adding a couple of sophisticated examples with turtles.
- Updating the section on hardware and networks to reference newer hardware, including multi core processors and cell phones.
- Making clearer what can be done in Jython and CPython, in comparison with JES.
- Adding another steganography-related example.
- Adding figures and additional explanation for the areas that reviewers saw as confusing for students.
About the Authors
- Barbara Ericson is a research scientist and the Director of Computing Outreach for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. She has been working on improving introductory computing education for over 5 years. She enjoys the diversity of the types of problems she has worked on over the years in computing including computer graphics, artificial intelligence, medicine, and object-oriented programming.
- Mark Guzdial is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. An award-winning teacher and active researcher in computing education, he holds a joint Ph.D. In Education and Computer Science from the University of Michigan. Dr. Guzdial directs Project “Georgia Computes!” which is an NSF funded alliance to improve computing education from pre-teen years to undergraduates. He is a member of the ACM Education Board and is a frequent contributor to the ACM SIGCSE (Computer Science Education) Symposium.
Book Details
- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (©2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0132923513
- ISBN-13: 978-0132923514
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
List Price: $124.00