Re: Ada books for undergraduate computer science

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <2322@atlas.cs.nps.navy.mil> erickson@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil (David Erickson) writes:
>
>I've taken the liberty of adding a few titles to the 2nd list which I
>have found useful (Bray&Pokrass, and the two Gehani texts).  I think the
>Lomuto text belongs in the first group - it emphasizes problem solving
>(based on Polya's How to Solve It), and would be a good addition to CS1
>courses.

I took another look at Lomuto. I like the book a lot, but I don't think
the typical freshman could handle the assumptions Lomuto makes about their
sophistication in algorithm development and about their programming
background - he uses linked lists fairly liberally, for example - this
is squarely a CS2 topic in most schools.

A CS1 course typically assumes that the student has scarcely seen a computer 
before. NPS has the luxury of assuming a four-year UG education in its 
students. Even if they are new to computing, they have the maturity rarely 
seen (Alas!) in today's first-year college kids. An undergrad book (maybe as 
part of an algorithms course), yes. A CS1 book, I don't think so. Check the
1984 ACM recommended outline for CS1 (by Koffman, Miller, et al).

I think the Bray/Pokrass book is out of print. Too bad. I know the book,
but don't think it's available.

I use Gehani's "Ada: Concurrent Programming" in my graduate course on that
subject (and/or his Concurrent C book, which is similar except for
differences in coding language). His "Unix Ada Programming" is almost
identical to "Ada: an Advanced Introduction." It's a slightly modified
spinoff, in my opinion. I generally like Gehani's style. I used the latter
book for a year or so in my graduate comparative languages course (as the
Ada book). Surprisingly, most of the students didn't like his style.
Maybe it made them think too much. We use Cohen now; they complain less.

Mike Feldman