Computer Science Textbooks Research Articles

Learning from wrong and creative algorithm design

We all are aware of the relevance of examining a task from diverse angles. We also are aware of the potential relevance of learning from one's mistakes. Yet computer science (CS) textbooks and teaching materials fall short in embedding these two notions. In this paper, we present an approach of elaborating divergent thinking in algorithm design, while capitalizing on erroneous solutions. Using a collected set of non-routine algorithmic tasks, we developed and applied a scheme of class activities, in which initial faulty solutions (due to novice tendencies) are carefully examined, and their falsifying inputs and characteristics are used for creative reasoning that yields fruitful outcomes. We present and illustrate our activities, refer to their cognitive aspects, and describe our experience with applying them in (an Introduction-to-Algorithms) class.

Effective identifier names for comprehension and memory

Readers of programs have two main sources of domain information: identifier names and comments. When functions are uncommented, as many are, comprehension is almost exclusively dependent on the identifier names. Assuming that writers of programs want to create quality identifiers (e.g., identifiers that include relevant domain knowledge), one must ask how should they go about it. For example, do the initials of a concept name provide enough information to represent the concept? If not, and a longer identifier is needed, is an abbreviation satisfactory or does the concept need to be captured in an identifier that includes full words? What is the effect of longer identifiers on limited short term memory capacity? Results from a study designed to investigate these questions are reported. The study involved over 100 programmers who were asked to describe 12 different functions and then recall identifiers that appeared in each function. The functions used three different levels of identifiers: single letters, abbreviations, and full words. Responses allow the extent of comprehension associated with the different levels to be studied along with their impact on memory. The functions used in the study include standard computer science textbook algorithms and functions extracted from production code. The results show that full-word identifiers lead to the best comprehension; however, in many cases, there is no statistical difference between using full words and abbreviations. When considered in the light of limited human short-term memory, well-chosen abbreviations may be preferable in some situations since identifiers with fewer syllables are easier to remember.

Content and emphasis in CS1

In the spring of 2004, 351 faculty members responded to a survey concerning the content and topic emphasis in the first course in computing. The survey targeted two different groups of faculty, one SIGCSE members and the other faculty who had contacted a medium-sized publisher of Computer Science textbooks. The questions fell into five categories: design methodology, general programming issues, object-oriented issues, software engineering issues, and other topics. The results are analyzed and, where possible, some conclusions are drawn.

The Impact of Interactive Computer Simulations on the Nature and Quality of Postgraduate Science Teachers’ Explanations in Physics

This study investigated how individuals’ construction of explanations—a way of ascertaining how well an individual understands a concept—develops from an interactive simulation. Specifically, the purpose was to investigate the effect of interactive computer simulations or science textbook assignments on the nature and quality of postgraduate science teachers’ explanations regarding physical phenomena in Mechanics, Waves/Optics, and Thermal Physics. The use of simulations or science textbook assignments was implemented according to the Predict–Observe–Explain model and integrated into a one‐semester conceptual survey course in physics for practising science teachers who served as participants in the study. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews and were analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Results indicate that the use of computer simulations along with the application of the Predict–Observe–Explain model had a positive impact on the nature and quality of science teachers’ explanations. They improved science teachers’ ability to generate scientifically accurate explanations and fostered in‐depth advancement in teachers’ search for explanatory scientific information regarding the physical phenomena under investigation. In addition, teachers’ explanations became more elaborate, reflecting cause‐effect reasoning and formal reasoning.

Cyber Terrorism: A Study of the Extent of Coverage in Computer Science Textbooks

Introduction Terrorism is the most pressing national security issue facing the United States and its allies around the world. This became shockingly clear on September 11, 2001 and promises to be a long-lasting threat requiring a total commitment by the United States to eliminate terrorist organizations wherever they are found. Terrorism is an old problem, and the word dates to France's Reign of Terror in 1793-94 (Garrison, 2003). The United States State Department has defined as violence against noncombatants for the purpose of influencing public opinion (Council on Foreign Relations [CFR], n.d.). The former deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorist Center has identified four elements that are common to all acts of (Vatis, 2001). Acts of are: (1) premeditated and not simply acts born of rage, (2) political and designed to impact political structure, (3) targeted at civilians and civilian installations, and (4) conducted by ad hoc groups as opposed to national armies. The war on is sure to result in attacks against US assets launched by terrorist groups, nation-states that provide support for terrorists, and hackers who sympathize with the terrorists (Vatis, 2001). The term cyber terrorism was coined to characterize computer-based attacks against an adversary's assets. It takes place were cyberspace and converge (Denning, 1999). Though these attacks occur in cyberspace, they still exhibit the four elements common to all acts of terrorism: (1) premeditated and not simply acts born of rage Cyber terrorist attacks are premediatated and must be planned since they involve the development or acquistition of software to carry out an attack. (2) political and designed to impact political structure Computer is an act that is intended to corrupt or completely destroy a computer system (Galley, 1996). Cyber terrorists are hackers with a political motivation, their attacks can impact political structure through this corruption and destruction. (3) targeted at civilians and civilian installations Cyber terrorist attacks often target civilian interests. Denning (2000a) qualifies as an attack that results in violence against persons or property, or at least causes enough harm to generate fear. (4) conducted by ad hoc groups as opposed to national armies Cyber is sometimes distinguished from warfare or information warfare, which are computer-based attacks orchestrated by agents of a nation-state. Cyber warfare is another term that is often used to describe various aspects of defending and attacking information and computer networks in cyberspace, as well as denying an adversary's ability to do the same (Hildrith, 2001). Cyber warfare and information warfare employ information technology as an instrument of war to attack an adversary's critical computer systems (Hirsch, Kett, & Trefil, 2002). Winn Schwartau (1994) has proposed three categories for classifying information warfare: (1) Personal Information Warfare, (2) Corporate Information Warfare, and (3) Global Information Warfare. Personal Information Warfare involves computer-based attacks on data about individuals. It may involve such things as disclosing or corrupting confidential personal information, such as those in medical or credit files. Corporate Information Warfare may involve industrial espionage or disseminating misinformation about competitors over the internet. Global Information Warfare is aimed at a country's critical computer systems. The goal is to disrupt the country by disabling systems, such as energy, communication or transportation. Another level of politically motivated computer attacks is often referred to as hacktivism--a combination of political activism and hacking. The intent in hacktivism is to disrupt normal operations but not cause serious damage (Denning, 2000b). …

A safe variant of the unsafe integer arithmetic of Java™

AbstractComputers are finite machines and, therefore, the arithmetic operations in a programming language are different from their mathematical counterparts. These restrictions seem not to have been, in general, fully appreciated in programming languages and in computer science textbooks. One example is the programming language Java, which makes it difficult to warn the user in cases in which arithmetic operations produce incorrect results. In this paper we look at integer arithmetic in Java and develop a safe variant of the arithmetic operations in Java. The design of the safe variant of $+$, $-_{\rm un}$, $-_{\rm bin}$, $*$, $/$ and $**$ for the types byte, short, int and long reveals a number of deficiencies of Java in integer arithmetic, floating point arithmetic and program structure. Some of these deficiencies are also present in other contemporary programming languages. The paper therefore ends with some proposals for the design of the arithmetic elements of programming languages. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Javiva

The ability to think abstractly about the components of a computer program is critical for computer science students. A student who has not yet developed this ability tends to view a program as an unstructured collection of statements and expressions. Introductory computer science textbooks promote the use of pre-conditions, post-conditions, and abstraction functions as techniques for fostering abstract thinking. Existing programming languages and tools, however, do not generally support these techniques. Consequently, we have built and are beginning to experiment with Javiva. Javiva extracts pre-conditions, post-conditions, and abstraction functions---included as stylized comments in Java source files---and uses them to create instrumented class files. When these instrumented class files are run, they automatically diagnose and report violations by methods of pre- and post-conditions. These classes also exploit abstraction functions to automatically produce abstract visualizations of their objects.

False friends in english‐Spanish translations in computer science literature

False friends constitute a source of error for learners of a language and for translators. However, false friends are constantly created either as loan words or as words which share a common derivation. This article investigates the phenomenon of false friends from a positive perspective in order to establish a classification towards a descriptive study of computer‐related translations of English into Spanish. Our immediate aim is to show to what an extent false friends is a widespread phenomenon when a word is borrowed from another language, or when two culturally and historically‐related languages such as English and Spanish interact. Therefore our main task is to make the most of the semantic and pragmatic information provided by false friends and analyse actual ocurrences of false friends in computer magazines as well as in Computer Science textbooks. As a result, different categories of false friends could be established (we illustrate each of them with several examples). In the course of the analysis of this phenomenon, we point out reasons which may lead to the occurrence of false friends in English‐Spanish translations. We will also discuss why false friends should not be just seen as a ‘funny’ feature in translations.

Introduction to distributed algorithms

A senior undergraduate or graduate level computer science textbook on algorithm design for distributed computer systems.

The publication process for computer science textbooks

article Free Access Share on The publication process for computer science textbooks Author: Angela B. Shiflet View Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGCSE BulletinVolume 24Issue 2June 1992 pp 15–19https://doi.org/10.1145/130962.130965Published:01 June 1992Publication History 0citation86DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations0Total Downloads86Last 12 Months4Last 6 weeks1 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Good pedagogical random number generators

A CACM by Park and Miller [6] advocated a standard for random number generators based on the Lehmer generator [5] and criticised a number of computer science textbooks for presenting bad random number generators. This paper advocates the proposed standard and presents a set of generators based on theoretically sound principles that are also useful for microcomputer implementation and classroom presentations at the introductory level.

A ?geometric? view of the dynamics of trajectories of computer programs

This paper applies mathematical ideas which arise from differential geometry and control theory to computer programming theory. For the sake of simplicity, most questions of logic and language are put to the side. A computer program is regarded as a collection of data, considered as a collection of cross-sections of a fiber space whose base is a discrete space. These distinguished cross-sections are called the trajectories of the computer program system. For the simplest von Neumann type of program, the base space is the nonnegative integers: The trajectories may then often be thought of as the orbits of a discretetime dynamical system. Feedback control theory enters when one attempts to provide a ‘rational’ way of generating such dynamical systems, satisfying certain conditions, such as termination and correctness. The greatest common divisor and bubble sort programs — standard examples in computer science textbooks — are treated as models for the development of a general theory. Geometrically, we will also consider them as the discrete analogue of what are called path systems in differential geometry. These examples can also be treated as the analogue of closed-loop feedback control systems — themselves a sort of path system — that are ‘driven’ to the final answer by a process that is similar to the way that Lyapunov theory is used in the linear regulator problem of control theory. This use of the Lyapunov ideas of dynamical system theory gives a technique for proving the correctness and termination of some programs. In order to provide a mathematical structure to a programming theory that is, in some sense, analogous to the group-theoretic structure of fiber bundle differential geometry, an algebraic structure of a category which acts on the fiber space is associated with such programs. The computation of the binomial coefficients will also be treated as an example of a system of partial difference equations, leading to the description of some features of concurrent programs. Prolongations and correspondences are defined for programs, based on the analogous ideas for differential systems. Finally, some of the geometric background of modal logic is developed, particularly as it is used in following the temporal development of computer programs. The approach is related to the classical geometric notion of correspondence, and to the Jonsson-Tarski theory of operators on Boolean algebras.

A content analysis of six introduction to computer science textbooks

A content analysis was conducted on three pairs of introduction to computer science textbooks to determine if there were any significant differences in their content. The results of the analysis seem to indicate that the content of major topics in earlier computer science texts is not signficantly different from more recent textbooks.

Programming concepts and principles in the introductory computer science textbook

Programming concepts and principles in the introductory computer science textbook

How Readers Annotate Textbooks and Manuals

An empirical investigation of how students annotate computer science textbooks and programming language manuals is reported. Also, a taxonomy of such annotations is presented. These results may be used when designing systems for online representation of either computer documentation or literature in general, including textbooks.