Computer Science Illuminated

by Nell Dale, John Lewis

Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning
ISBN: 1449672841

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Book Description

Revised and updated with the latest information in the field, the Fifth Edition of best-selling Computer Science Illuminated continues to provide students with an engaging breadth-first overview of computer science principles and provides a solid foundation for those continuing their study in this dynamic and exciting discipline.

Authored by two of today's most respected computer science educators, Nell Dale and John Lewis, the text carefully unfolds the many layers of computing from a language-neutral perspective, beginning with the information layer, progressing through the hardware, programming, operating systems, application, and communication layers, and ending with a discussion on the limitations of computing. Separate program language chapters are available as bundle items for instructors who would like to explore a particular programming language with their students.

Ideal for introductory computing and computer science courses, the fifth edition's thorough presentation of computing systems provides computer science majors with a solid foundation for further study, and offers non-majors a comprehensive and complete introduction to computing.

New Features of the Fifth Edition:

• A new chapter on computer security provides readers with the latest information on preventing unauthorized access; types of malware and anti-virus software; protecting online information, including data collection issues with Facebook, Google, etc.; security issues with mobile and portable devices; and more.
• A NEW section on cloud computing offers readers an overview of the latest way in which businesses and users interact with computers and mobile devices.
• The section on social networks has been rewritten to include up-to-date information, including new data on Google+ and Facebook.
• The sections covering HTML have been updated to include HTML5. - Revised and updated Did You Know callouts are included in the chapter margins.
• The updated Ethical Issues at the end of each chapter have been revised to tie the content to the tenth strand recommended by the ACM, which stresses the importance of computer ethics.

Accompanied by a comprehensive suite of instructor resources including answers to the end of chapter exercises, answers to the optional lab exercises, PowerPoint Lecture Outlines, Image Bank, and a complete Test Bank. Every new copy is packaged with full student access code to the robust Companion Website featuring: Animated Flashcards; Relevant Web Links; Crossword Puzzles; Interactive Glossary; Digital Lab Manual; R. Mark Meyer's labs, Explorations in Computer Science; Additional programming chapters, including Alice, C++, Java, JavaScript, Pascal, Perl, Python, Ruby, SQL, and VB.NET; C++ Language Essentials labs; Java Language Essentials labs; Link to Download Pep/8

Customer Reviews

Enjoyed the book. Good quality. Really teaches you computer science from the ground-up. Anybody interested in computer science who would like a more foundational approach will enjoy this textbook.

I have used this textbook through all five editions over ten years of teaching a non-majors' introduction to Computer Science, so obviously I believe in this book. I think that the level at which Dale and Lewis present most topics is just right, and I like the onion metaphor and the overall flow of chapters. I think the text puts some very tricky stuff at just the right level of explanation for non-majors. That being said, my favorite edition was the second edition. Some of what has been added since then (for example, a chapter on data structures and a treatment of sorting algorithms) is far beyond what I want to cover with this audience. I have never used all of the programming content, preferring to do a brief overview of the nature of low-level and high-level languages and then teach a learner's environment (currently, Scratch) away from the book. I also think that while certain material has been added to the text to bring it up to date, there are artifacts from the past (like floppy disks) that need to be culled. Overall, however, it remains far and above my favorite "Computer Science 0" textbook.