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Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science (Paperback)

by John M. Zelle (Author)
Key Phrases: elif value, projectile class, print sing, Exercises Review Questions True, Investment Growth Chart, Roll Dice (more...)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Disguised as a Python textbook, it's really an introduction to programming, using Python as the preffered medium for beginners." -- Guido van Rossum, Creator of Python

"Introduces Python and computer science concepts in a style that beginning students find appealing and easy to understand." -- Dave Reed, Capital University

"Provides clear explanation of introductory programming concepts, and shows why Python is an excellent choice for a first language." -- Russell May, Morehead State University

Product Description
This book is designed to be used as the primary textbook in a college-level first course in computing. It takes a fairly traditional approach, emphasizing problem solving, design, and programming as the core skills of computer science. However, these ideas are illustrated using a non-traditional language, namely Python.

Although I use Python as the language, teaching Python is not the main point of this book. Rather, Python is used to illustrate fundamental principles of design and programming that apply in any language or computing environment. In some places, I have purposely avoided certain Python features and idioms that are not generally found in other languages. There are already many good books about Python on the market; this book is intended as an introduction to computing.

Features include the following:
*Extensive use of computer graphics.
*Interesting examples.
*Readable prose.
*Flexible spiral coverage.
*Just-in-time object coverage.
*Extensive end-of-chapter problems.

Product Details

Paperback: 517 pages
Publisher: Franklin Beedle & Associates (December 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1887902996
ISBN-13: 978-1887902991
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,902 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#7 in Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > Python
#12 in Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Introductory & Beginning

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
elif value, projectile class, print sing, def search, definite loop, formatting operator, looping version, temperature conversion program, def fact, def sing, def update, counted loop, def test, chaos program, quadratic solver, poker program, import math, python program, sentinel loop, annualized interest rate, graphics module, string library, decoder program, sentinel value, roll button

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Exercises Review Questions True, Investment Growth Chart, Roll Dice, Monte Carlo, Susan Computewell, Hello Bob, Modify the Chaos, The Magic of Python, Celsius Converter, Denny Dibblebit

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Customer Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful: The best CS1 textbook I've ever seen, December 18, 2005

By	John Lasseter "johnfl70" (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews

I just wrapped up teaching a semester CS1 course using Zelle's book. I hope I never have to use another book besides this, because this text is simply fantastic.

This was the third version of CS1 I've taught, and the first using Python instead of C. The use of Python definitely contributed to the smashing success of this class (as did an exceptionally strong group of students), but much of the credit must go to this book.

Honestly, Zelle just nailed it. The examples are illustrative and convincing: his is one of the few books that manages to avoid the trap of silly and unreal examples that therefore provide no context for a student. His writing is crystal clear and very well organized, replete with very helpful diagrams and illustrative examples (did I mention the examples?), and he has obviously paid a lot of attention to the aspects of programming that students find most difficult.

And the exercises: wow. This is the first time I haven't felt the need to write my own (although I did anyway, because it's fun). They are fair but challenging (sometimes very), and for those of us on the teaching end, you'll be happy to know that the instructor's resources come with _complete_ sets of working solutions to all of the exercises.

Three chapters stand out in particular. First is the chapter on graphics (Ch. 5). Students love graphics, and Zelle has included a very nice wrapper on top of the TKinter library, which makes for a GUI package that students can actually use. Second, there's the final chapter that actually introduces recursion and some of the interesting algorithms from the science (searching/sorting, permutations, etc.). I had a lot of fun demonstrating the difference between sorting /usr/share/dict/words with insertion sort (about 6 days) and merge sort (about 6 seconds).

But possibly the best chapter is one I almost skipped: the chapter on software development, which is centered around a case study development of a "racquetball" simulation. At the last minute, I decided to use this chapter as the jumping off point for integrating the ideas we'd seen up to mid-term into real software development. I am convinced that this made the class.

Now there are a couple of things you might want to add as an instructor: The main one is the fact that Python is such a high-level language, with so much hand-holding built in, that I'm worried that students going on to later CS classes in other languages could get a nasty surprise. I finished up my class with a primer on languages with static type systems, in which you don't have wonderful Pythony things like string/list slicing, built-in hashtables, etc. In a second edition of this book, I'd like to see another chapter on this.

Second is a very small quibble, and really just boils down to a difference with Zelle about the order in which I like to teach this material. I ended up using every chapter in the book, but in the order 2,3,4,7,8,6,9,11,5,10,12,13. As yet another thing I love about this book, the chapters are independent enough from each other, that I was able to do this with only careful selection of the sections. Actually the book lends itself very well to alternative orderings.

In short, I simply have nothing bad to say about this book, and lots of good. Zelle hit this one out of the park. Everybody should be using it.

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is where to start, August 21, 2004

By	Brian Zimmerman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For those of you who don't know how to program, this book is the best starting place I've ever read. It's written as an introduction to computer science, by professional educators for a CS1 course.

This book defines all the terms and parts to programming that other "Learn Python" books seem to assume you already know. If reading the tutor section of the Python documentation that came with the language (www.python.org) was not completely clear to you, this is the best book to get you ready to program.

There are plenty of example programs to keep this book interesting to intermediate programmers, but there is doubtfully anything surprising to experienced programmers. Everything in this book is very clearly explained and organized.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From A Computer Science Student..., January 24, 2005

By	J. Murray (Bemidji, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

I absolutely love this book. I've browsed through many computer programming/computer science books before this one, and found this one the best introductory book by far for many reasons. For one, the book moves at a quick yet manageable pace, so I felt like I able to move quickly enough not to get bored yet still absorb the material. Honestly, and I'd never thought I'd say this about a textbook for a class, but I found this to be a page-turner!

There is a convienient Quick Reference serving as an Appendix. It quickly lists the operators, functions, techniques, etc, presented i each chapter, so I didn't need to dig back through the chapters when a concept for function name slipped my mind.

MOST importantly for me are the exercises at the end of each chapter. Sure, most books have sample-code, too, but this book gives you a fair number of problems to solve using the tools you have just learned.

So, if you are new to computer science and interested in learning to program in any language, I'd STRONGLY recommend this book. It's a great introduction to Python, but it's also a GREAT introduction to computer programming concepts.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars A terrible introduction book...
I just wrapped up using this book for a CS Introduction class and found it to be quite difficult to really use. Read more

Published 2 months ago by E. Rees

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for people outside the Computer Science field
This book was my introduction to both Computer Science and Python. The nice thing about it is to start learning a programming language while assimilating the basic concepts and... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Eduardo M.

5.0 out of 5 stars A splendid introduction to two topics
This book is a wonderful introduction to computer science and programming in Python. I recommend it highly.

[...]

Published 4 months ago by Samuel Huckins

4.0 out of 5 stars Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science
This is the best introduction of Python I've found so far. It has many examples and exercises which are helpful in the development of Python programming skills. Read more

Published 5 months ago by A. Vence

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Excellent!
I was new to programming and have been struggling to find a good book to explain some concepts and learn a little bit more about python. This book did both. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Mark J. Pachlhofer

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Intro to Computer Science
I've procrastinated learning computer science for a long time, as I never thought I could self teach. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Nicholas DiMucci

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introductory book, but not advanced
I am about 200 pages into this book. I have some scripting experience (Javascript), but not an awful lot. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Benjamin Power

5.0 out of 5 stars Oustanding Python and CS Intro
I'm a computer science PhD student and computational biologist who is looking to convert from Perl to Python in order to create more readable and maintainable code... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Nik W. Brown

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent instructor resource
I use this as a supplementary text for a computational chemistry class. It's simply excellent and student-friendly. You can't go wrong with this one.

Published 11 months ago by Sans_A_Cause

5.0 out of 5 stars Introduction to Computer Science using Python by John Zelle
As a person, who has taken 4 programming courses in 4 different languages, but is basically a novice, this text was a revelation to me and explained the basics of computer science... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Mr. Sam S. Narkinsky

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