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OSdata.com: programming text book 

OSdata.com

Computer programming text book

table of contents

summary

    My goal is to provide a free downloadable text that can be used in college and high school computer programming classes. The intent of this free downloadable college text book is to attempt to directly help poor and middle class students with the high cost of college text books by providing a high quality free alternative that can be used in the classroom for a subject that most college students are required to take.

    Professors are encouraged to use this to create their own mash-up book that matches their lesson plans (within copyright restrictions listed below).

    Material is usually presented as a summary, a mixture of platform-independent principles and ideas along with specific implementation instructions for some popular languages (with the intent that the professor’s mash-up have only one language implementation of the professor’s choice), additional resource material, and an optional discussion of the underlying mathematics (to keep more talented students from becoming bored).

    This book is released under a free educational license allowing most non-profit educational uses (including professor mash-ups), but requiring that each and every contributor be contacted for any other use. This is specifically non-GNU to protect the rights of professors to include their own materials in their own mash-ups.

    The first part of the book covers the basics of programming and the second part covers advanced topics, such as assembly language, compilers, and operating systems. Each chapter and subchapter starts with a language independent summary of the programming concepts, followed by the mechanics of language specific implementation and additional related material that may interest more talented students.

    This free downloadable book is based on and includes materials from OSdata.com . Materials from OSdata.com have already been used in more than 300 colleges and universities around the world and have been quoted in studies and policy decisions by the U.S. Navy and the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

    This is still a work in progress. Feedback and constructive criticism appreciated (especially feedback from professors who might want to use the finished book).

    While this book is still being written, professors are free to use specific chapters (or portions of chapters) as class handouts to supplement existing for-profit text books. This same policy will continue to apply after the book is completed, but this policy offers usefulness for many classes right now today even though the book is still incomplete.

    Poor students should not feel bad about using this book for free. You are exactly who this book is intended to help. You may optionally do volunteer work for the charitable organization of your choice (not political or religious activity — actual work for a charitable organization helping the poor, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, or the environment, etc.).

copyrights

    Students have permission to download this free computer programming textbook (in whole or in part) and print out copies for personal use.

    Government schools and the instructors/professors/teachers at government schools have permission to download and print copies of this free computer programming textbook (in whole or in part) for personal use and for distribution to students in their classes. Schools/instructors/professors/teachers may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of printing, binding, and other related costs.

    The schools and educators granted permission in the paragraph above may change the order of material, add new material, delete existing material, and otherwise make changes that customize the book for their classes. Schools and educators are asked to provide copies of any new materials added and indicate whether they want to credited by name and institution or anonymously.

    Remember that any donations are voluntary and donations are not expected from those who are poor or otherwise might be burdened by the cost of making a donation. Corporations or rich people who want to help support the writing of this book are encouraged to make donations and will be specifically mentioned for their support.

    author: Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, CA, 92781, USA

    Note that the full copyright notice has been moved to a separate web page.

view text book
HTML file

Because I no longer have the computer and software to make PDFs, the book is available as an HTML file, which you can convert into a PDF.

download text book
huge PDF book (first draft)

This huge PDF file might crash many web browsers, so you probably want to download to disk or save link to disk.

free computer programming text book project

If you like the idea of this project,
then please donate some money.

if you want to make a tax-deductible donation to the StarTree107 Foundation to support this educational work, contact Dr. Barry at 949-675-5778

Message to Professors

    If you are at an accredited college, university, or other school in the U.S. or Canada, you have permission to use any of these materials in your own “mash-up”, as hand-outs, or as a whole book (and you can change the order, delete stuff, add stuff, and mdify stuff) as long as it is for your own classroom use. I do need you to include the copyright notice on anything you use.

    I do not know the accreditation rules for other nations, so am limiting the above permission in other nations to government schools, colleges, and universities in any nation. Write a letter and ask if you are at a non-government school in another nation. I do need you to include the copyright notice on anything you use.

    Also, accredited schools, colleges, and universities in the U.S. and Canada and government schools in any other nation may print this book (with modifications) and provide it to students either free or at actual printing costs. I do need you to include the copyright notice (including website URL) on anything you use.

    I also ask that you provide a copy of any variant versions of this book you create (you can send a CD-R to Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, CA, 92781, USA).

    Feel free to donate additional materials (you will be credited for your contributions).

    And please provide feedback on any recommendations, suggestions, complaints, corections, etc. to improve the quality of this free text book for your class use.

Message to Self-Taught Students

    It is almost always better to learn from a qualty university or college.

    With the current dismantlement of quality higher education for the middle class and poor, many prospective students are forced to learn on their own.

    If you must self-teach, please seek out other talented individuals and form a study group.

    If you must seek underground education, such as reading a free college text book on-line, please use the knowledge you gain for positive purposes, such as when internet-savvy youth used the internet to start and finish the non-violent overthrow of the Mubarak government in Egypt. Note, I strongly recommend that the people of Egypt be rewarded by returning the prime meridian of the world to the center of the Great Library at Alexandria, and that Egypt, Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India be added to the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with veto power. That would be a just international reward for skilled positive use of the internet for widespread public good.

    Please avoid any destructive programming. Seriously consider the moral and ethical consequences of weapons of mass destruction.

chapters written so far:
table of contents

download text book
huge PDF book

This huge PDF file might crash many web browsers, so you probably want to download to disk or save link to disk.

Google

explanation and goal of this book

    The goal of this book is to provide a free downloadable text that can be used in college and high school computer programming classes.

    According to the Los Angeles Times college text books average $120 each (late 2006) and the major book publishers are still jacking up the prices. According to the LA Times, many poor students are barred from higher education (even though they have financial aid or a scholarship) because they simply can’t afford the price of text books, which can be more than a thousand dollars a semester/quarter.

    The major book publishers put out new (more expensive) editions of text books every three years. It just happens to be that three years is the amount of time for a text book to saturate the used text book market and cut into sales of new books. The book publishers claim that this is mere coincidence with the timing of their new editions and that they only publish new editions when they need to make improvements on the existing text. it is mere coincidence that these necessary improvements happen to exactly match the sales cycle for every text book they publish!

    It will take me time to get a computer programming text book written, but I am a skilled writer, as proven by this highly popular website OSdata.com, a website on computer operating systems that is used by more than 300 universities and colleges around the world and that has been cited by the U.S. Navy in the paperwork justifying switching to Linux for all mission critical computers and by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany in paperwork justifying their switch to Linux.

    I do actively encourage students, teachers, and professional programmers to provide useful feedback and criticism to help make this project useful as a free downloadable college text book.

    Donations of money to help support the writing and hosting of this project are greatly appreciated. Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, CA, 92781, USA.

copyrights

    This free downloadable computer programming text book is Copyright © Milo except where specifically noted otherwise.

    Students have permission to download this free computer programming textbook (in whole or in part) and print out copies for personal use.

    Government schools and the instructors/professors/teachers at government schools have permission to download and print copies of this free computer programming textbook (in whole or in part) for personal use and for distribution to students in their classes. Schools/instructors/professors/teachers may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of printing, binding, and other related costs.

    The schools and educators granted permission in the paragraph above may change the order of material, add new material, delete existing material, and otherwise make changes that customize the book for their classes. Schools and educators are asked to provide copies of any new materials added and indicate whether they want to credited by name and institution or anonymously.

    Others wishing to print this free text book should contact the author with their request.

    Those who can afford to pay for this computer programming text book, should send cash donations to Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, California, USA, 92781.

    Note that the full copyright notice has been moved to a separate web page.

using this text book

    This book is divided into two major sections.

    This organization reflects the way computer programming is normally taught: an overview class that gives a foundation in basic concepts, followed by a series of more advanced concepts.

    The first section provides an introduction and overview to computer programming.

    This first section is further divided into general discussions and language specific discussions. It is generally unwise for beginners to attempt to learn more than one programming language at a time. Each programming language is color coded. The choice of colors is completely arbitrary and has nno meaning.

    Within each chapter and subchapter, the material starts with a language-independent summary that explains the underlying programming concept. This is followed by detailed explanation of the concept intermixed with explanations of the mechanics of major programming languages (usually Pascal and C, along with others as appropriate). Additional reference materials for the smarter students include brief comparisons of how these ideas are implemented in a number of programming languages and the underlying mathematical concepts.

    The second section provides a detailed examination and reference for advanced studies in computer programming and computer science.

    Do not expect for this book to be assigned in the same order as it is written. There are many different ways to teach computer programming, so your particular professor or instructor is likely to change the order of presentation of the material, probably also deleting entire chapters and possibly inntroducing additional outside materials.

    In particular, there is more material in the introductory section than can reasonably be covered in a single class. Your professor will decide which materials should be emphasized and which materials should be skipped. Some programming languages naturally emphasize some materials and don’t include others.

    Most schools start students on programming as quickly as possible. Don’t be surprised if your professor skips over some or all of the early chapters and tells you that some or all is material that you should already know.

    Once the introductory material has been covered, the advanced material can literally be taught in almost any order.

    Professors are strongly encouraged to edit and rearrange materials to match the order of class presentation.

    Important Note: For the sake of clarity, much of the material in the first section is watered down and simplified. Most exceptions (including some important ones) will be overlooked. Many details (including some important ones) will be ignored. Terminology will be used in a casual manner without formal definitions. Including all that information would just bog down the discussion and make it more difficult to understand the basic principles.

comments, suggestions, corrections, criticisms

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This section is under the category of owning cirticism.

In response to a posting about my article collecting social media, Moderator +Andrew Smith (Technology addict, Web Developer, API guru, futsal and football wannabe, and all round nice guy!, Swordfox Design, arrowtown, new zealand) of the Google+ community Web Developers, Web Designers, Web Coding claims “Quite frankly this is self promotion, and your site is not of great quality. I can see how +Joost SchuurÊ would think this of not high enough a standard.”

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free computer programming text book project

Building a free downloadable text book on computer programming for university, college, community college, and high school classes in computer programming.

If you like the idea of this project,
then please donate some money.

if you want to make a tax-deductible donation to the StarTree107 Foundation to support this educational work, contact Dr. Barry at 949-675-5778

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Made with Macintosh

    This web site handcrafted on Macintosh computers using Tom Bender’s Tex-Edit Plus and served using FreeBSD .

Viewable With Any Browser

    †UNIX used as a generic term unless specifically used as a trademark (such as in the phrase “UNIX certified”). UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.

    Names and logos of various OSs are trademarks of their respective owners.

    Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Milo

    Created: December 25, 2006

    Last Updated: August 30, 2014

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