Computer Science I
                                 by
                            Robert Lowe


 Introduction to the Gopher Course
 =================================
 Welcome to Computer Science I!  This is the first in what I hope to
 be a series of complete computer science courses in gopherspace.
 Here, you will find a self-contained and complete course of study
 complete with lectures and assignments.

 This course is the first course in Computer Science, and as such, I
 assume no prior knowledge of computers or computer programming.
 This should provide anyone who wishes to learn with a firm
 foundation for studying computing.  I am presenting this course with
 the same content and curriculum as I do when I teach this course to
 my students at several different colleges.  Even though the material
 is the same, this course is not supported by any institution.  I am
 doing this simply to provide a resource to both serious students and
 those with a casual interest in computer science.


 Required Materials
 ==================
 In order to get the most of the course, you will need a few things.
 First, you will need a computer running some variant of UNIX.
 (UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, or even msys or cygwin will work just
 fine).  You will also need a few freely available pieces of
 software.  These are g++, make, gdb, and some text editor.

 All of these resources are available on sdf.org, which is where this
 course is being hosted.  You will need an arpa level membership to
 run all of these tools.  For more information on how to acquire a
 membership, please visit http://sdf.org.

 You may also wish to acquire a textbook for reference and reading
 purposes.  My hope is that this material will be self-contained
 enough to be usable without a book, but more material never hurts.
 There are many C++ texts out there.  Bjarrne Stroustrup's book "The
 C++ Programming Language" is a good reference.  I've also had luck
 using Walter Savitch's "Problem Solving with C++".


 The First Programming Language
 ==============================
 In this section, I will share with you my thoughts on a first
 programming language.  This is primarily for those of you that have
 some programming experience, and may become upset because of my
 choices.  Even if you have no programming experience, you may enjoy
 this section, but please do not be discouraged if you don't
 understand some of these points.  You will in time!

 The programming language used in this course is C++.  Many people,
 myself included, have expressed strong emotions about using C++ as
 an introductory programming language.  Many people favor it, and
 many people oppose it.  I used to fall into the group of people who
 opposed its use and I lamented the fact that it had supplanted C as
 the language that is taught in the beginning.  However, when I
 looked at my reasons for this, I discovered that they were not
 good.  Rather, my reasoning was that I prefer to program in C,
 therefore I should prefer to teach in C.  This line of reasoning
 opened me up to the idea that maybe C++ is a good first language.

 I thought long and hard about the best starting language, and
 I decided that I would likely choose C, C++, or LISP.  As I started
 to explore these options, I made a list of strong points for each
 language.  A summary of these are:

   - C:     The language is nice and small, so its syntax is easy to
            learn.  Also, it is a good model of how modern computers
            work, and it is the most popular programming language in
            the world.

   - C++:   The language has a C-like syntax, and has high level
            functionality such as object oriented programming.  In
            spite of its high-level functions, it still performs low
            level operations like C.  It is one the most common
            languages taught in modern universities.

    - LISP: A LISP program is a thing of beauty!  The syntax and
            organization of LISP is similar to lambda calculus, and
            so this is very close to theoretical computer science.
            Theory of computation would be easily understood by a
            LISP programmer.

 So all the languages have strong points to recommend them.  Next, I
 looked I looked at their drawbacks:

   - C:     Practically mandates that a programmer work with low level
            constructs such as memory pointers.  This is great if you
            know what you are doing, but is downright scary for the
            novice.  Abstraction is harder to achieve for the novice.

   - C++:   For every rule it creates, it creates ways around them.
            Also, syntax can be misleading.  It allows many details
            to be abstracted which can be good, but can also allow
            students to ignore low level details.

   - LISP:  Does not reflect the inner structure of most machines.
            There is no real access to low-level operations.  The
            paradigm is also not as common.  The skills gained in
            lisp may not transfer well to other languages.

 So there you have it; all programming languages are bad for novices!
 Seriously though, thinking it through, I decided that I wanted to
 choose a language which allowed for as much exploration as
 possible.  C++ is a multi-paradigm language, and can do both high
 level and low level work.  Thus, C++ let's us explore the whole of
 computing.  Also, C++ experience is readily transferable into
 low-level languages like C and also high level languages such as
 Java.  The problems in C++ (the ability to ignore details) can be
 handled by careful presentation, and that is what I have tried to do
 with this course.  Present C++ in a way that forces you to face up
 to what is really going on, and not get mired in its very large
 syntax!


 Schedule of Postings
 ====================
 I am treating this gopherspace as though it were my classroom.  I
 will be releasing materials here during the Fall 2013 semester with
 roughly the same schedule that I am presenting them in the
 classroom.  Of course, after this semester is over, the text files
 will remain.  If you find this course after December 2013, all the
 material will be here.  If it's before then, check back every Monday
 for the current week's material.

 If you have questions, suggestions, or you just want to chat with an
 ultra cool computer scientist, you are welcome to contact me.  My
 email is [email protected].  I also hang out on sdf.org in com, and on
 the bboard.  I will post to bboard every time I add a new lesson,
 and we can chat there.  Of course, you don't have to be an sdf user
 to make use of these courses, but that is sort of my home base.

 I hope you enjoy reading the lectures and working through the labs.
 See you on the server!


 Copyright (C) 2013 Robert Lowe
 This work is distributed under a Creative Commons
 Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA 3.0)
 For more information, see http://creativecommons.org

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