Assignment 1 (Reading)

The book we are using for many of the computer science concepts needed for CSE100 is Great Ideas In Computer Science, A Gentle Introduction by Alan Biermann. This is a fine book, but because we are teaching Fluency With Information Technology, a completely new idea, this text book is not perfect. Nevertheless, it contains good information, and it will help us a lot.

Assignment 1: Read Chapter 1, A & B sections, i.e. all sections except "The Arrow Notation" section.

This chapter is an easy introduction to decision making in computers. Notice that the sections of the book are labeled "A", "B" or "C". We will only ever assign the A and B sections, but if you are interested, read the C sections too.

In this chapter and elsewhere in the book, the programming language Pascal is used to show examples. Pascal is one of several languages that we will encounter in this class. We need languages to tell computers what to do for us. We will not learn to program in Pascal, but we will have a "reading knowledge" of Pascal. (As anyone who has tried to learn a second (natural) language knows, it is much easier to read another language than to write it. The same is true of computer languages.) The goal is for you to be able to look at sequence of Pascal instructions and understand what they will do. This is pretty easy, since Pascal is designed to be intuitive … at least compared to some other programming languages!

Biermann explains enough of Pascal in Chapter 1 for you to read it for the examples in the book. So, pay attention to his explanations of the programs in this chapter, and you will acquire a "reading knowledge" of Pascal sufficient for the remainder of the book

Due: Reading should be complete by class Friday 2 April 1999.