Customer Reviews

A Computer Science Tapestry : Exploring Computer Science with C

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book is a textbook, not a reference book. Text books teach, reference books provide convenient lookup. As a teacher of large programming classes, I can appreciate the authors approach to teaching programming. Students with no background do MUCH better with a black box approach to functions. Use it first then learn how to make it yourself is a far better approach than getting students lost in all of the details no matter how important the details are. There's plenty of time later in the semester (and subsequent courses) to master the details. For most students, the CS1 course is NOT about becoming a programmer, it's about learning analytical problem solving skills. The book does an excellent job of addressing the pedegogical concerns of the CS1 course. One may of course have quibbles with the order that things are presented of course. I personally prefer to introduce functions before classes. But this is a religious issue more than anything else. There are many different ways to do things that all lead to a successful conclusion.

I have taught programming for almost 10 years now. I have used many books which aim to teach students the basics of many programming languages - take the Deitel 'How to Program' series for example. The author's approach in explaining the basics of programming using an object oriented approach is fully-fledged (please read its preface before making any unnecessary comments). Students learn to read and understand class descriptions and implementations. After exposure to many classes in the first couple of chapters, students learn to design their own simple classes and work with them from scratch. The author's discussion of recursion, inheritance and polymorphism is also classical. After teaching an introductory class with this book, my students have always found the move to Java much easier.

When I first signed up for professor Astrachan's class of Computer Programming for beginners, I thought to myself: "this guy must think he is some kind of genius or somehting... writing our textbook is just too much." Later I found out that Professor Astrachan really knows his computer science, and this fact is definately reflected in his work on A Computer Science Tapestry. The Tapestry, as we now all call it, has proven to be one of the most valuable books in my career of computer programming. I have spent time refrencing it, studying it, and skimming it's pages just before a project to be sure I knew exactly what I needed to know to make the computer code work for me. Professor Astrachan makes coding in C++ easy to grasp in a way that many professors could only wish for. This Computer Science Tapestry is what C++ is based upon, and what C++ could be built upon.

What should I say about this book... Hmm, from my feeling, this is one of the best in "Introduction" to Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (from more than 20 C++ books I've read..). Why?

First, I really like the way the author explain things, it's very easy to understand, concise and clear. The programming style is also very good.

Second, this book teach C++ in the way C+ should be taught. For example, instead of using the array of characters or pointer to charecters to make string, this book use standard string class from the beginning. And instead of using array, it use vector container class.. and so on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those STL crazed person. However, I have to admit that STL changed the way of programming the C++ dramatically. And at least, Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, said the same thing (the way C++ should be taught, something like that. You can refer to this homepage for more information about this).

And one thing that made this book different from the rest, the approach of introducing the "Class".

Instead of creating the class first, then use your own class in your program, this book teach you how to "use" class to code. The reader will see how easier things (and more beautiful code) become when using classes, compare to not using them. Then, after using those classes for a while, you'll know how you "should" write your own.

This book, of course, also teach you how to implement the class. But the "idea" of what the class is, how important it is, and how should blah blah blah, is also very important.. And that sort of information seems to be missed from the other books, at least missed from where it should be mentioned. (Anyway, in real world programming... you'll likely to use the class libraries someone had implemented, and then expand them, more than write your own classes from scrath).

One downside... using his own classes in the example means.. most of the example are not ANSI compliant. Therefore, you can't just type them down and compile them without downloading those files (maybe it's in CD-ROM, I've checked the CD yet.. since I already download them from this book's website at Duke university). And, therefore, someone who is really "novice" might have no idea what this book is talking about when it start mentioning the strange header files which are not parts of Standard library.

And also, there're also some little problems with the examples. However, it's not the severe like those in Herbert Schildt's and Walter Savitch's books.

This book will, believe me, help you a lot in your programming career with C++ and Object-Oriented. And it's definitely one of the best in this genre.

What should I say about this book... Hmm, from my feeling, this is one of the best in "Introduction" to Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (from more than 20 C++ books I've read..). Why?

First, I really like the way the author explain things, it's very easy to understand, concise and clear. The programming style is also very good.

Second, this book teach C++ in the way C+ should be taught. For example, instead of using the array of characters or pointer to charecters to make string, this book use standard string class from the beginning. And instead of using array, it use vector container class.. and so on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those STL crazed person. However, I have to admit that STL changed the way of programming the C++ dramatically. And at least, Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, said the same thing (the way C++ should be taught, something like that. You can refer to this homepage for more information about this).

And one thing that made this book different from the rest, the approach of introducing the "Class". Instead of creating the class first, then use your own class in your program, this book teach you how to "use" class to code. The reader will see how easier things (and more beautiful code) become when using classes, compare to not using them. Then, after using those classes for a while, you'll know how you "should" write your own.

This book, of course, also teach you how to implement the class. But the "idea" of what the class is, how important it is, and how should blah blah blah, is also very important.. And that sort of information seems to be missed from the other books, at least missed from where it should be mentioned. (Anyway, in real world programming... you'll likely to use the class libraries someone had implemented, and then expand them, more than write your own classes from scrath).

One downside... using his own classes in the example means.. most of the example are not ANSI compliant. Therefore, you can't just type them down and compile them without downloading those files (maybe it's in CD-ROM, I've checked the CD yet.. since I already download them from this book's website at Duke university). And, therefore, someone who is really "novice" might have no idea what this book is talking about when it start mentioning the strange header files which are not parts of Standard library.

And also, there're also some little problems with the examples. However, it's not the severe like those in Herbert Schildt's and Walter Savitch's books.

This book will, believe me, help you a lot in your programming career with C++ and Object-Oriented. And it's definitely one of the best in this genre.

I am a former student of Dr. Astrachan at Duke, and his goal in writing this book (if you read the introduction above) is to teach C++ to students who have NO programming experience in any language. O'Sullivan in his previous review seems to think that C is a better programming language than C++ (I'm not saying C is inferior, I'm just saying that they are different languages and should be treated as such). O'Sullivan also has the perspective of someone who already knows a programming language, and therefore would not benefit from a beginner's book. O'Sullivan also clearly missed the point of C++ and OOP, as he says that programmers should learn how printf() and other low-level constructs work. But why? C++ and OOP totally make those constructs useless, and teaching these constructs to BEGINNERS will only muddle the topic further. The books O'Sullivan reccomends are all C books, and anyone interested in OOP or C++ should not bother with them. Perhaps when O'Sullivan graduates from high school, he will understand that there is a wealth of Object Orientation in C++ waiting for him in the real world. My advice to anyone thinking of purchasing this book: if you are new to programming, this is the book you want! It is informative, educational, clear, and not at all confusing. Is it a reference book? Not really, so once you know the language, you should perhaps purchase another book for use as reference. But for learning programming from the start, this is the book you want.

Daaaaamn Solid! I use this book im my class, Mr. Astrachan is my teacher in fact.. haha... there is one minor flaw though; it doesnt give me all the answers to questions that I might have, though he has a very good way of presenting it. There are a few concepts he goes to briefly, oh well, im sure he did that purposely so people like me would have to actually program in his class.. hehe.. anyways... yeah, this book is the best and the professor ROCKS!

This is one of the best entry-level computer science books I've read. It does a great job of introducing basic programming concepts while also teaching C++.

Having received this book as a gift I really did not lose anything of value except for my time. No other book has fueled my outrage over its production than this one. I thought I was going to cherish a "Tapestry", especially a free one... When I first got the book, I came here and read the reviews.. and gave the author the benefit of the doubt and said eh, everyone's got an opinion. Let me tell you straight out EVERY negative review here is right on. I have no reason to bash this book other than the facts, as I said before I didn't pay for it. Thank goodness. I felt so ill toward it I wrote to Owen himself. Among the things stated already by past reviews, my most major gripe is that code is scattered about with no real order whatsoever. He gives you a website to download more code.. has a How to G appendix which supposedly has even more code.. yet I guarantee you, you are going to find #include's that are not found anywhere listed above. Not in the appendix, the book content or his site. So what gives? Was this an attempt to influence the budding programmer to develop his/her own classes and header files? I have a strong C background and if he wanted me to dream up these missing files, there's no way I could without advanced knowledge of C++. This is a beginner's book.. so I feel this author meant for the code to not actually be typed by a programmer and run.. but to be looked at and studied by theory. Garbage. Don't waste your time.

This book gives a very interesting approach, not as much to Object-Oriented-Programming feature of c++--which it talks sufficiently enough of--but rather this book gives a good starting point for ppl who actually want to go in to the field of computer science. however, a star is taken off because reader never tough a computer before might find it hard to start with. (I would recommend those ppl read "for dummy" books, I guess...) I mean after all, this book is being use as a textbook in UC Berkeley...what do you think?