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About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Contributors

Creators

Dedication

Preface

Copyright

Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

6th Edition
G. Michael Schneider Macalester College

Judith L. Gersting Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis

Bo BrinkmanContributing author Miami University

Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Contributors
Marie Lee Executive Editor:

Brandi Shailer Acquisitions Editor:

Alyssa Pratt Senior Product Manager:

Deb Kaufmann Development Editor:

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Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Creators
G. Michael Schneider Macalester College

Judith L. Gersting Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis

Bo BrinkmanContributing author Miami University

Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Dedication
To my wife, Ruthann, our children, Benjamin, Rebecca, and Trevor, grandson, Liam,
and granddaughter, Sena.

G. M. S.

To my husband, John, and to: Adam and Francine; Jason, Cathryn, Sammie, and
Johnny

J. L. G.

Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Preface
Preface

Overview

This text is intended for use in a one-semester introductory course in computer

science. It presents a breadth-first overview of the discipline that assumes no prior
background in computer science, programming, or mathematics. It is appropriate for a
service course for students not majoring in computer science, as well as for schools
that implement their introductory sequence for majors using the breadth-first model
described in the ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2001 Report. It would be quite suitable
for a high school computer science course as well. Previous editions of this text have
been used in all these types of courses.

The Non-majors Course

The introductory computer science service course has undergone many changes over
the years. In the 1970s and early 1980s, it was usually a course in FOR-TRAN, BASIC, or
Pascal. At that time it was felt that the most important skill a student could acquire was
learning to program in a high-level language. In the mid-to-late’80s, a rapid increase in
computer use caused the course to evolve into something called “computer literacy” in
which students learned about new applications of computing in such fields as business,
medicine, law, and education. With the growth of personal computers and productivity
software, a typical early to mid-1990s version of this course would spend a semester
teaching students to use word processors, databases, spreadsheets, presentation
software, and electronic mail. The most recent change has been its evolution into a
Web-centric course where students learn to design and implement Web pages using
technology such as HTML, XML, ASP, and Java applets.

In many institutions the computer science service course has evolved yet again. There
are two reasons for this. First, virtually all students in college today are familiar with
personal computers and productivity software. They have been using word processors
and presentation systems since elementary school and are quite familiar with social
networks, online retailing, e-mail, and chat rooms. Many have designed Web pages and
even manage their own Web sites and blogs. In this day and age, a course that focuses
on applications of computing will be of little or no interest.

But a more important reason for rethinking the structure of this course, and the
primary reason why we authored this book, is the following observation:

Most computer science service courses do not teach students the foundations and
fundamentals of computer science!

We believe quite strongly that students in a computer science service course should
receive a solid grounding in the fundamental intellectual concepts of computer science
in addition to important uses of computing and information technology. This parallels
the introductory course in biology, physics, or geology, where the central
underpinnings of the respective fields are introduced. The topics in such a computer
science course would not be limited to “fun” applications such as Web page design,
social networking, and interactive graphics, but would also cover issues such as
algorithms, hardware design, computer organization, system software, language
models, theory of computation, and social and ethical issues of computing. An to these
core ideas exposes students to the overall richness and beauty of the field, and it allows
them to not only use computers and software effectively but to understand and
appreciate the basic ideas underlying their creation and implementation.

The Cs1 Course

The design of a first course for computer science majors has also come in for a great
deal of discussion. Since the emergence of computer science as a distinct academic
discipline in the 1960s, the first course has always been an introduction to
programming—from BASIC to FORTRAN to Pascal, to C++, Java, and Python today. Some
new programming-related topics have been added to the syllabus (e.g., object-oriented
design), but the central focus has remained high-level language programming.
However, the most recent ACM/IEEE curriculum report proposed a number of
alternative models for the first course, including a breadth-first overview, an approach
that has gained in popularity over time.

A first course for computer science majors using the breadth-first model emphasizes
early exposure to the sub-disciplines of the field rather than placing exclusive
emphasis on programming. This gives new majors a more complete and well-rounded
understanding of their chosen field of study. As stated in the Curriculum Report,
“[introductory] courses that emphasize only this one aspect [programming] fail to let
students experience the many other areas and styles of thought that are part of
computer science as a whole.” Our book—intended for either majors or non-majors—is
organized around this breadth-first approach, and it presents a wide range of subject
matter drawn from many areas of computer science. However, to avoid drowning
students in a sea of seemingly unrelated facts and details, a breadth-first presentation
must be carefully woven into a cohesive fabric, a theme, a “big picture” that ties
together these topics and presents computer science as a unified and integrated
discipline. To achieve this we have divided the study of computer science into a
hierarchy of topics, with each layer in the hierarchy building on and expanding upon
concepts presented in earlier chapters.

A Hierarchy of Abstractions

The central theme of this book is that computer science is the study of algorithms. Our
hierarchy utilizes this definition by first looking at the algorithmic basis of computer
science and then moving upward from this central theme to higher-level issues such as
hardware, software, applications, and ethics. Just as the chemist starts from protons,
neutrons, and electrons and builds up to atoms, molecules, and compounds, so, too,
does our text build from elementary concepts such as algorithms, binary arithmetic,
gates, and circuits to higher-level ideas such as computer organization, operating
systems, high-level languages, applications, and the social, legal, and ethical problems
of information technology.

The six levels in our computer science hierarchy are as follows:

Level 1

The Algorithmic Foundations of Computer Science

Level 2

The Hardware World

Level 3

The Virtual Machine

Level 4

The Software World

Level 5

Applications

Level 6

Social Issues in Computing

Following an introductory chapter, Level 1 Chapters 2-3 introduces “The Algorithmic

Foundations of Computer Science,” the bedrock on which all other aspects of the
discipline are built. It presents fundamental ideas such as the design of algorithms,
algorithmic problem solving, abstraction, pseudocode, iteration, and efficiency. It
illustrates these ideas using well-known examples such as searching a list, finding
maxima and minima, sorting a list, and matching patterns. It also introduces the
concepts of algorithm efficiency and asymptotic growth and demonstrates that not all
algorithms are, at least in terms of running time, created equal.

The discussions in Level 1 assume that our algorithms are executed by something
called a “computing agent,” an abstract concept for any entity that can effectively carry
out the instructions contained in our solution. However, in Level 1 (Chapters 4-5), “The
Hardware World,” we now want our algorithms to be executed by “real” computers to
produce “real” results. Thus begins our discussion of hardware, logic design, and
computer organization. The initial discussion introduces the basic building blocks of
computer systems—binary numbers, Boolean logic, gates, and circuits. It then shows
how these elementary concepts can be used to construct a real computer using the
classic Von Neumann architecture, including processors, memory, buses, and
input/output. It presents a typical machine language instruction set and explains how
the algorithmic primitives of Level 1 can be represented in machine language and run
on the Von Neumann hardware of Level 1, conceptually tying together these two areas.
It ends with a discussion of important new directions in hardware design—multicore
processors and massively parallel machines.

By the end of Level 1 students have been introduced to some basic concepts in logic
design and computer organization, and they understand and appreciate the enormous
complexity of these ideas. This complexity is the motivation for the material contained
in Level 3 (Chapters 6-8), “The Virtual Machine.” This section describes how system
software produces a more friendly, user-oriented problem-solving environment that
hides many of the ugly hardware details just described. Level 3 looks at the same
problems discussed in Level 1, encoding and executing algorithms, but shows how
much easier this is in a virtual environment containing helpful software tools like
editors, translators, debuggers, and loaders. This section also discusses the services and
responsibilities of operating systems and how operating systems have evolved. It
investigates one of the most important virtual environments in current use—networks
of computers. It shows how systems such as the Ethernet, Internet, and the Web are
created from computers linked together via transmission media and communications
software. This linkage creates a virtual environment in which we seamlessly use not
only the computer on our desk or in our hand but computers located practically
anywhere in the world. Level 3 concludes with a look at one of the most important
services provided by a virtual machine, information security, and describes algorithms
for protecting the user and the system from accidental or malicious damage.

Once we have created this user-oriented virtual environment, what do we want to do

with it? Most likely we want to write programs to solve interesting problems. This is
the motivation for Level 4 (Chapters 9-12), “The Software World.” Although this book
should not be viewed as a programming text, it contains an overview of the features
found in modern programming languages. This gives students an appreciation for the
interesting and challenging task of the computer programmer and the power of the
problem-solving environment created by a modern high-level language. (Detailed
introductions to five important high-level programming languages are available via
online, downloadable chapters accessible through the CourseMate for this text, as well
as at www.cengagebrain.com.) There are many different programming language
models, so this level includes a discussion of other language types, including special-
purpose languages such as SQL, HTML, and JavaScript, as well as the functional, logic,
and parallel language paradigms. This level also describes the design and construction
of a compiler and shows how high-level languages can be translated into machine
language for execution. This latter discussion ties together ideas presented in earlier
chapters, as we show how an algorithm (Level 1) is translated into a high-level
language (Level 4), compiled and executed on a typical Von Neumann machine (Level
1), which makes use of the system software tools of Level 3. These “recurring themes”
and frequent references to earlier concepts help reinforce the idea of computer science
as an integrated set of related topics. At the conclusion of Level 4, we introduce the idea
of computability and unsolvability. A formal model of computing (the Turing machine)
is used to prove that problems exist for which no general algorithmic solution can be
found. This shows students that there are provable limits to what computers and
computer science can achieve.

We now have a high-level programming environment in which it is possible to write

programs to solve important problems. In Level 5 (Chapters 13-16), “Applications,” we
take a look at a few important uses of computers in our modern society. There is no
way to cover even a tiny fraction of the many applications of computers and
information technology in a single section. Indeed, there is hardly a field of study, from
Art to Zoology, that has not been significantly impacted by the advances in computation
and communication. Instead, we focus on a relatively small set of applications that
demonstrate important concepts, tools, and techniques of computer science. This
includes applications drawn from the sciences and engineering (simulation and
modeling), business and finance (e-commerce, databases), the social sciences (artificial
intelligence), and everyday life (computer generated imagery, video gaming, virtual
communities). Our goal is not to provide “encyclopedic coverage” of modern
computing usage; instead, it is to show students that these applications are not “magic
boxes” whose inner workings are totally unfathomable. Rather, they are the direct
result of utilizing and building upon core computer science concepts—e.g., algorithms,
hardware, languages—presented in earlier chapters. We hope that the discussions in
this section will encourage readers to seek out information on applications and
software packages specific to their own areas of interest.

Finally, we reach the highest level of study, Level 6 (Chapter 17), “Social Issues in
Computing,” which addresses the social, ethical, and legal issues raised by the
applications presented in Level 5. This section (written by contributing author
Professor Bo Brinkman of Miami University) examines such thorny problems as the
theft of intellectual property, national security concerns aggravated by information
technology, and problems caused by the unauthorized access to online databases. It
also discusses erosions to our personal privacy caused by the growing popularity of
social networks. This chapter does not attempt to provide quick solutions to these
complex problems. Instead, it focuses on techniques that students can use to think
about these ethical issues and reach their own conclusions. Our goal in this final
section is to make students aware of the enormous impact that information technology
is having on everyone’s lives and to give them tools that will allow them to make more
informed decisions.

This, then, is the hierarchical structure of our text. It begins with the algorithmic
foundations of the discipline and works its way from low-level hardware concepts
through virtual machine environments, languages, software, and applications to the
social issues raised by computer technology. This organizational structure, along with
the use of recurring themes, enables students to view computer science as a unified,
integrated, and coherent field of study. While the social issues material in Chapter 17
can be presented at any time, the rest of the material is intended to be covered
sequentially.

What’s New

This sixth edition of Invitation to Computer Science contains a number of new features
on emerging issues in computer science. We have added material on topics such as
multicore and parallel systems, cloud computing, wireless communications, embedded
computing and its security vulnerabilities, agile software development, emerging
programming languages (Go and F#), new models of e-commerce, database integrity
rules, and the progress of artificial intelligence in game playing.
There are many new in-chapter Practice Problems (with answers provided at the end
of the text) as well as numerous new End of Chapter Exercises. There are also new
additions to the end-of-chapter Challenge Problems; these more complex questions can
be used for longer assignments done either individually or by teams of students. Many
new or updated Special Interest Boxes highlight historical information, new
developments in computing, or interesting news items that show how computing
affects everyday life.

One of the most important new features in this edition is the rewrite of Chapter 17,
Making Decisions about Computers, Information, and Society, authored by Bo Brinkman
of Miami University, a recognized expert on the topic of social and ethical issues in
computing. In addition to new Case Studies, this chapter contains a completely new
section entitled “Personal Privacy and Social Networks,” which addresses the real and
growing problems of cyberbullying and the threats to our personal privacy caused by
the enormous popularity of Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

An Interactive Experience-coursemate

This edition offers significantly enhanced supplementary material and additional

resources available online through a new CourseMate. Course-Mate is a valuable Web
resource containing an eBook with highlighting and note-taking capabilities,
supplementary readings that correspond to each chapter, a glossary and flashcards of
key technical terms, and links to interesting articles, helpful references, and relevant
videos from across the Web. The CourseMate encourages a truly interactive experience
with study games, objective- and application-based quizzing, and hands-on exploration
projects that speak students’ language.

Instructors may add CourseMate to the textbook package, or students may purchase
CourseMate directly through www.cengagebrain.com.

An Experimental Science-laboratory Manual

Another important aspect of computer science education is the realization that, like
physics, chemistry, and biology, computer science is an empirical, laboratory-based
discipline in which learning comes not only from watching and listening but from
doing and trying. Many complex ideas in computer science cannot be fully understood
and appreciated until they are visualized, manipulated, and tested. Today, most
computer science faculty consider formal laboratories to be an essential part of any
introductory course. We concur, and this development is fully reflected in our
approach to the material.

Associated with this text is a laboratory manual and custom-designed laboratory

software that enables students to experiment with the concepts we present. The
manual contains 20 laboratory experiences, closely coordinated with the main text,
that cover all levels except Level 6. These labs give students the chance to observe,
study, analyze, and/or modify an important idea or concept. For example, associated
with Level 1 (the algorithmic foundations of computer science) are experiments that
animate the algorithms in Chapters 2 and 3 and ask students to observe and discuss
what is happening in these animations. There are also labs that allow students to
measure the running time of these algorithms for different-sized data sets and discuss
their behavior, thus providing concrete observations of an abstract concept like
algorithmic efficiency. Associated with Level 1 (the hardware world) are projects to
design and analyze logic circuits as well as program a simulated Von Neumann
machine that is identical to the one presented in the text. There are similar labs
available for Levels 3, 4, and 5 that highlight and clarify the material presented in the
text.
Each of the lab manual experiments includes an explanation of how to use the
software, a description of exactly how to conduct the experiment, and discussion
questions and problems for students to complete and hand in. When doing these
projects, students could work on their own or in teams, and the course may utilize
either a closed-lab (formal, scheduled) or an open-lab (informal, unscheduled) setting.
The manual and software will work well in any of these laboratory models. The text
contains 20 boxes labeled “Laboratory Exercise” that describe each lab and identify the
point in the text where it is most appropriate.

Instructors may add the Laboratory Manual and accompanying software to the
textbook package. The Laboratory Manual and CourseMate may also be bundled
together for the optimal experience; contact your sales representative for more
information. Students may purchase the Laboratory Manual directly through
www.cengagebrain.com.

Summary

Computer science is a young and exciting discipline, and we hope that the material in
this text, along with the laboratory projects and online modules, will convey this
feeling of excitement. By presenting the field in all its richness—algorithms, hardware,
software, systems, applications, and social issues—we hope to give students a deeper
appreciation for the many diverse and interesting areas of research and study within
the discipline of computer science. We hope that you will enjoy reading and learning
from this latest edition of our text.

Instructor Resources

The following supplemental teaching tools are available when this book is used in a
classroom setting. All of the teaching tools available with this book are provided to the
instructor on a single CD-ROM. Many are also available for download at
login.cengage.com.

Electronic Instructor’s Manual

The Instructor’s Manual follows the text chapter-by-chapter and includes material to
assist in planning and organizing an effective, engaging course. The Manual includes
Overviews, Chapter Objectives, Teaching Tips, Quick Quizzes, Class Discussion Topics,
Additional Projects, Additional Resources, and Key Terms. A Sample Syllabus is also
available.

Solutions

Complete solutions to chapter Review Questions, Discussion Questions, and

quantitative hands-on work are provided.

Examview®

This textbook is accompanied by ExamView, a powerful testing software package that

allows instructors to create and administer printed, LAN-based, and Internet exams.
ExamView includes hundreds of questions that correspond to the text, enabling
students to generate detailed study guides that include page references for further
review. The computer-based and Internet testing components allow students to take
exams at their computers and save the instructor time by grading each exam
automatically. These test banks are also available in Blackboard, Web CT, and Angel
compatible formats.

Powerpoint Presentations

This text provides Microsoft PowerPoint slides to accompany each chapter. Slides may
 be used to guide classroom presentation, to make available to students for chapter
review, or to print as classroom handouts. Instructors may customize the slides to best
suit their course with the complete Figure Files from the text.

—G. Michael Schneider

Macalester College

[email protected]

— Judith L. Gersting

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis

[email protected]

Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Copyright

Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

COPYRIGHT © 2013, Cengage Learning

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be
reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording,
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For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning

Customer & Sales Support, www.cengage.com/support

Some of the product names and company names used in this book have been used for
identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
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Any fictional data related to persons or companies or URLs used throughout this book
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Cengage Learning reserves the right to revise this publication and make changes from
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 Further permissions questions can be emailed to [email protected]

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Chapter : About Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

© 2014 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may by reproduced or used in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or
mechanical, or in any other manner - without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Computer Science
Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

Chapter 1
An Introduction to Computer Science
1.1 Introduction

1.2 The Definition of Computer Science

1.3 Algorithms
1.3.1 The Formal Definition of an Algorithm

1.3.2 The Importance of Algorithmic Problem Solving

1.4 A Brief History of Computing

1.4.1 The Early Period: Up to 1940

1.4.2 The Birth of Computers: 1940–1950

1.4.3 The Modern Era: 1950 to the Present

1.5 Organization of the Text

Chapter Review
Exercises

Challenge Work

Additional Resources

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Computer Science: 1.1

Book Title: Invitation to Computer Science, Sixth Edition
Printed By:
© 2013 , Cengage Learning

1.1 Introduction
This text is an invitation to learn about one of the youngest and most exciting of
scientific disciplines—computer science. Almost every day our newspapers, televisions,
and electronic media carry reports of significant advances in computing, such as
15
high-speed supercomputers that perform over 8 quadrillion (10 ) mathematical
operations per second; networks that transmit high-definition images and movies
anywhere in the world in fractions of a second; minute computer chips that can be
embedded into our appliances, clothing, and even our bodies; and artificial intelligence
systems that answer English language questions faster and more accurately than
humans. The next few years will see technological breakthroughs that, until a few
years ago, existed only in the minds of dreamers and science fiction writers. These are
exciting times in computing, and our goal in this text is to provide you with an
understanding of computer science and an appreciation for the diverse areas of
research and study within this important field.

Although the average person can produce a reasonably accurate description of most
scientific fields, even if he or she did not study the subject in school, many people do
not have an intuitive understanding of the types of problems studied by computer
science professionals. For example, you probably know that biology is the study of
living organisms and that chemistry deals with the structure and composition of
matter. However, you might not have the same fundamental understanding of the
work that goes on in computer science. In fact, many people harbor one or more of the
following common misconceptions about this field.

MISCONCEPTION 1: Computer science is the study of computers.

This apparently obvious definition is actually incorrect or, to put it more precisely,
incomplete. For example, some of the earliest and most fundamental theoretical work
in computer science took place from 1920 to 1940, years before the development of the
first computer system. (This pioneering work was initially considered a branch of logic
and applied mathematics. Computer science did not come to be recognized as a
separate and independent field of scientific study until the late 1950s to early 1960s.)
Even today, there are branches of computer science quite distinct from the study of
“real” machines. In theoretical computer science, for example, researchers study the
logical and mathematical properties of problems and their solutions. Frequently, these
researchers investigate problems not with actual computers but rather with formal
models of computation, which are easier to study and analyze mathematically. Their
work involves pencil and paper, not circuit boards and disks.

This distinction between computers and computer science was beautifully expressed
by computer scientists Michael R. Fellows and Ian Parberry in an article in the journal
Computing Research News:

Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about

telescopes, biology is about microscopes, or chemistry is about beakers and test
tubes. Science is not about tools. It is about how we use them and what we find
out when we do.
 MISCONCEPTION 2: Computer science is the study of how to write computer
programs.

Many people are introduced to computer science when learning to write programs in a
language such as C++, Python, or Java. This almost universal use of programming as the
entry to the discipline can create the misunderstanding that computer science is
equivalent to computer programming.

Programming is extremely important to the discipline—researchers use it to study new

ideas and build and test new solutions—but like the computer itself, it is a tool. When
computer scientists design and analyze a new approach to solving a problem or create
new ways to represent information, they often implement their ideas as programs to
test them on an actual computer system. This enables researchers to see how well these
new ideas work and whether they perform better than previous methods.

For example, searching a list is one of the most common applications of computers, and
it is frequently applied to huge problems, such as finding one name among the
approximately 20,000,000 listings in the New York City telephone directory. (We will
solve this problem in Chapter 2.) A more efficient lookup method could significantly
reduce the time that customers must wait for directory assistance. Assume that we
have designed what we believe to be a “new and improved” search technique. After
analyzing it theoretically, we would study it empirically by writing a program to
implement our new method, executing it on our computer, and measuring its
performance. These tests would demonstrate under what conditions our new method
is or is not faster than the directory search procedures currently in use.

In computer science, it is not simply the construction of a high-quality program that is

important but also the methods it embodies, the services it provides, and the results it
produces. It is possible to become so enmeshed in writing code and getting it to run
that we forget that a program is only a means to an end, not an end in itself.

MISCONCEPTION 3: Computer science is the study of the uses and applications of

computers and software.

If one’s introduction to computer science is not programming, then it may be a course

on the application of computers and software. Such a course typically teaches the use
of a number of popular packages, such as word processors, search engines, database
systems, imaging software, mapping packages, smartphone apps, and Web browsers.

These packages are widely used by professionals in all fields. However, learning to use
a software package is no more a part of computer science than driver’s education is a
branch of automotive engineering. A wide range of people use computer software, but
it is the computer scientist who is responsible for specifying, designing, building, and
testing software packages as well as the computer systems on which they run.

These three misconceptions about computer science are not entirely wrong; they are
just woefully incomplete. Computers, programming languages, software, and
applications are part of the discipline of computer science, but neither individually nor
combined do they capture the richness and diversity of this field.

We have spent a good deal of time saying what computer science is not. What, then, is
it? What are its basic concepts? What are the fundamental questions studied by
professionals in this field? Is it possible to capture the breadth and scope of the
discipline in a single definition? We answer these fundamental questions in the next
section and, indeed, in the remainder of the text.

In the Beginning …

There is no single date that marks the beginning of computer science. Indeed,
there are many “firsts” that could be used to mark this event. For example,
some of the earliest theoretical work on the logical foundations of computer
science occurred in the 1930s. The first general-purpose, electronic computers
appeared during the period 1940–1946. (We will discuss the history of these
early machines in Section 1.4.) These first computers were one-of-a-kind
experimental systems that never moved outside the research laboratory. The
first commercial machine, the UNIVAC I, did not make its appearance until
March 1951, a date that marks the real beginning of the computer industry. The
first high-level (i.e., based on natural language) programming language was
FORTRAN. Some people mark its debut in 1957 as the beginning of the
“software” industry. The appearance of these new machines and languages
created new occupations, such as programmer, numerical analyst, and
computer engineer. To address the intellectual needs of these workers, the first
professional society for people in the field of computing, the Association for
Computing Machinery (ACM), was established in 1947. (The ACM has almost
100,000 members and is the largest professional computer science society in the
world. Its Web page is located at www.acm.org.) To help meet the rapidly
growing need for computer professionals, the first Department of Computer
Science was established at Purdue University in October 1962. It awarded its
first M.Sc. degree in 1964 and its first Ph.D. in computer science in 1966. An
undergraduate program was established in 1968.

Thus, depending on what you consider the most important “first,” the field of
computer science is somewhere between 45 and 80 years old. Compared with
such classic scientific disciplines as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and
biology, computer science is the new kid on the block.
 Definition

Computer science: the study of algorithms,

including

1. Their formal and mathematical

properties

If you are handed this list and 2. Their hardware realizations

carefully follow its instructions in the
order specified, when you reach the 3. Their linguistic realizations
end you will have solved the task at
hand. 4. Their applications

All the operations used to construct

algorithms belong to one of only three
categories:

1. Sequential operations A sequential instruction carries out a single well-defined

task. When that task is finished, the algorithm moves on to the next operation.
Sequential operations are usually expressed as simple declarative sentences.

Add 1 cup of butter to the mixture in the bowl.

Subtract the amount of the check from the current account balance.

Set the value of x to 1.

2. Conditional operations These are the “question-asking” instructions of an

algorithm. They ask a question, and the next operation is selected on the basis of
the answer to that question.

If the mixture is too dry, then add one-half cup of water to the bowl.

If the amount of the check is less than or equal to the current account
balance, then cash the check; otherwise, tell the person there are
insufficient funds.

If x is not equal to 0, then set y equal to 1/x; otherwise, print an error

message that says you cannot perform division by 0.

3. Iterative operations These are the “looping” instructions of an algorithm. They

tell us not to go on to the next instruction but, instead, to go back and repeat the
execution of a previous block of instructions.
 Repeat the previous two operations until the mixture has thickened.

While there are still more checks to be processed, do the following five
steps.

Repeat Steps 1, 2, and 3 until the value of y is equal to +1.

We use algorithms (although we don’t call them that) all the time— whenever we
follow a set of instructions to assemble a child’s toy, bake a cake, balance a checkbook,
or go through the college registration process. A good example of an algorithm used in
everyday life is the set of instructions shown in Figure 1.1 for programming a DVR to
record a sequence of television shows. Note the three types of instructions in this
algorithm: sequential (Steps 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8), conditional (Steps 1 and 7), and iterative
(Step 3).

Figure 1.1

Programming your DVR: An example of an algorithm

Mathematicians use algorithms all the time, and much of the work done by early
Greek, Roman, Persian, and Indian mathematicians involved the discovery of
algorithms for important problems in geometry and arithmetic; an example is Euclid’s
algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two positive integers. (Exercise 10
at the end of the chapter presents this 2,300-year-old algorithm.) We also studied
algorithms in elementary school, even if we didn’t know it. For example, in the first
grade we learned an algorithm for adding two numbers such as

The instructions our teachers gave were as follows: First add the rightmost column of
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