Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
Programming is a fascinating and challenging subject. Unfortunately, it is rarely presented as such. Most often it is taught by "induction": features of some famous programming languages are given operational meaning (e.g. a loop "goes round and round"), a number of examples are shown, and by induction, we are asked to develop other programs, often radically different from the ones we've seen. Basically we are taught to guess our programs, and then to patch up our guesses. Our errors are given the cute name of "bugs". Fixing them becomes puzzle-solving, as does finding tricks that exploit or avoid poorly designed features of the programming language. The entire process is time-consuming and expensive. And even so, we are never quite sure if our programs really work in all cases. When approached in this way, programming is indeed a dull activity. There is, however, another approach to programming, an approach in which programs can be developed reliably, with attention to the real issues. It is a practical approach based on methodically developing programs from their specifications. Besides being practical, it is exciting. Many programs can be developed with relative ease. Problems which once were difficult can now be solved by beginners. Elegant solutions bring great satisfaction. This is our subject. We are interested in making programming an exciting topic!
Similar content being viewed by others
Table of contents (14 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
Accessibility Information
PDF accessibility summary
This PDF is not accessible. It is based on scanned pages and does not support features such as screen reader compatibility or described non-text content (images, graphs etc). However, it likely supports searchable and selectable text based on OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Users with accessibility needs may not be able to use this content effectively. Please contact us at accessibilitysupport@springernature.com if you require assistance or an alternative format.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Programming in the 1990s
Book Subtitle: An Introduction to the Calculation of Programs
Authors: Edward Cohen
Series Title: Monographs in Computer Science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9706-9
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
-
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 1990
Softcover ISBN: 978-0-387-97382-1Published: 02 October 1990
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4613-9706-9Published: 06 December 2012
Series ISSN: 0172-603X
Series E-ISSN: 2512-5486
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 265