Contents :: Preface »

Think Like a Computer Scientist¶

There is a Search Page and Index.

A PDF version and source code are available.

Contents:

Preface
- Why I wrote this book
- Contributors List
- Preface to the Sphinx Edition by James Riely
The way of the program
- What is a programming language?
- What is a program?
- What is debugging?
- Formal and natural languages
- The first program
- Glossary
- Exercises
Variables and types
- More printing
- Variables
- Assignment
- Printing variables
- Keywords
- Operators
- Order of operations
- Operators for Strings
- Composition
- Glossary
- Exercises
Void methods
- Floating-point
- Converting from double to int
- Math methods
- Composition
- Adding new methods
- Classes and methods
- Programs with multiple methods
- Parameters and arguments
- Stack diagrams
- Methods with multiple parameters
- Methods that return values
- Glossary
- Exercises
Conditionals and recursion
- The modulus operator
- Conditional execution
- Alternative execution
- Chained conditionals
- Nested conditionals
- The return statement
- Type conversion
- Recursion
- Stack diagrams for recursive methods
- Glossary
- Exercises
GridWorld: Part 1
- Getting started
- BugRunner
- Exercises
Value methods
- Return values
- Program development
- Composition
- Overloading
- Boolean expressions
- Logical operators
- Boolean methods
- More recursion
- Leap of faith
- One more example
- Glossary
- Exercises
Iteration and loops
- Multiple assignment
- The while statement
- Tables
- Two-dimensional tables
- Encapsulation and generalization
- Methods and encapsulation
- Local variables
- More generalization
- Glossary
- Exercises
Strings and things
- Characters
- Length
- Traversal
- Run-time errors
- Reading documentation
- The indexOf method
- Looping and counting
- Increment and decrement operators
- Strings are immutable
- Strings are incomparable
- Glossary
- Exercises
Mutable objects
- Packages
- Point objects
- Instance variables
- Objects as parameters
- Rectangles
- Objects as return types
- Objects are mutable
- Aliasing
- null
- Garbage collection
- Objects and primitives
- Glossary
- Exercises
GridWorld: Part 2
- Termites
- Langton’s Termite
- Exercises
Create your own objects
- Class definitions and object types
- Time
- Constructors
- More constructors
- Creating a new object
- Printing objects
- Operations on objects
- Pure functions
- Modifiers
- Fill-in methods
- Incremental development and planning
- Generalization
- Algorithms
- Glossary
- Exercises
Arrays
- Accessing elements
- Copying arrays
- Arrays and objects
- for loops
- Array length
- Random numbers
- Array of random numbers
- Counting
- The histogram
- A single-pass solution
- Glossary
- Exercises
Arrays of Objects
- The Road Ahead
- Card objects
- The printCard method
- The sameCard method
- The compareCard method
- Arrays of cards
- The printDeck method
- Searching
- Decks and subdecks
- Glossary
- Exercises
Objects of Arrays
- The Deck class
- Shuffling
- Sorting
- Subdecks
- Shuffling and dealing
- Mergesort
- Class variables
- Glossary
- Exercises
Object-oriented programming
- Programming languages and styles
- Object methods and class methods
- The toString method
- The equals method
- Oddities and errors
- Inheritance
- The class hierarchy
- Object-oriented design
- Glossary
- Exercises
GridWorld: Part 3
- ArrayList
- Interfaces
- public and private
- Game of Life
- LifeRunner
- LifeRock
- Simultaneous updates
- Initial conditions
- Exercises
Graphics
- Java 2D Graphics
- Graphics methods
- Coordinates
- Color
- Mickey Mouse
- Glossary
- Exercises
Input and Output in Java
- System objects
- Keyboard input
- File input
- Catching exceptions
Program development
- Strategies
- Failure modes
Debugging
- Syntax errors
- Run-time errors
- Logic errors

Contents :: Preface »