Computer Science page

Computer Science

My recommendation for teaching computer science is to start with a foundation of algebra and then to teach discrete math and programming as a computer science foundation to learn the next set of subjects.

A computer is needed for programming (we use C) but isn't required for discrete math or algebra.

Below are suggested textbooks for teaching the respective courses in the area of computer science.

• Artificial Intelligence
  • Elements of Artificial Intelligence Using Common Lisp, Steven Tanimoto, W.H. Freeman and Company.
• Compilers, Formal Languages and Theory of Computation
  • An Introduction To Formal Languages and Automata, Peter Linz, D.C. Heath and Company, 1990, undergraduate.
  • Compilers, Principles, Techniques, and Tools, by Alfred Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey Ullman, 1988, Addison-Wesley, undergraduate.
  • Elements of the Theory of Computation, Harry Lewis and Christos Papadimitriou, Prentice-Hall, 1981. Covers languages, automata, grammars, Turing machines, Church's Thesis, Uncomputability, complexity and propositional and predicate calculus.
• Computer Architecture and Organization
  • Computer Organization and Architecture, 2nd edition, William Stallings, 1990, Macmillan.
• Database
  • An Introduction to Database Systems, Volume I, Fifth Edition, C.J. Date, 1990, Addison-Wesley, undergraduate.
  • An Introduction to Database Systems, Volume II, Second Edition, C.J. Date, 1984, Addison-Wesley, university.
  • Readings in Database Systems, edited by Michael Stonebraker, second edition, 1994, Morgan Kaufmann, university.
  • Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques, Jim Gray and Andreas Reuter, 1993, Morgan Kaufmann.
• Data Structures and Algorithms.
  • Introduction to Algorithms, by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, MIT Press, 1990. BC QA76.6 .C662 1990. Looks pretty good for a course. It's a large, bulky and expensive book though.
  • Data structures and algorithms, by Alfred Aho. BC QA76.9.D35A38.
  • Algorithms in C++, Robert Sedgewick.
• Discrete Math
  • The nuts and bolts of proofs, Antonella Cupillari, BC QA9.54 .C86 1989. Haven't reviewed this yet.
  • Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, Kenneth H. Rosen, 1995. Requires calculus and probability. Haven't reviewed this yet.
  • Foundations of computer science, Aho and Ullman, 1995 (C version). I like this book though they have deemphasized mathematics to some degree to add data structures and computer organization topics. I think that this text would be a good reference or additional text.
  • The Essentials of Probability, Lutfi Lutfiyya, prerequisite for Rosen. $6 at Barnes and Noble.
  • A Logical Approach to Discrete Math by David Gries. Spends much more time on propositional and predicate logic than most other books and then develops other discrete math topics from logic.
• Foundations and Programming Languages
  • C: How To Program, Deitel and Deitel, 1994, Prentice-Hall, undergraduate. Very good for a one or two semester programming course.
  • The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition, Kernighan and Ritchie, 1988, Prentice-Hall.
  • Foundations of Computer Science (Principles of Computer Science Series), Alfred V. Aho, Jeffrey D. Ullman. I need to review this book. The Java Tutorial, a good way to learn the Java programming language. Shlurrrpp......Java: The first user-friendly tutorial on Java
• Operating Systems
  • Operating System Concepts, Silberschatz and Galvin, Addison-Wesley. Commonly known as the Dinosaur Book.

Computer Information Systems Topics

• Windows Programming. I took a course on Windows programming and we used the text: Programming Windows 3.1 by Charles Petzold. The book provides a nice guide to learning Windows programming and comes with a floppy with lots of examples. I believe that he has books for Windows 95 now.

Other Computer Science Curricular pages

Rutgers Graduate CS Prerequisites

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