Python for Software Design

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

This book is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. The planned publication date is March 2009. Here is the page for the book in their catalog. And here is the page on Amazon where you can preorder a copy.

Description

Python for Software Design is a concise introduction to software design using the Python programming language. Intended for people with no programming experience, this book starts with the most basic concepts and gradually adds new material. Some of the ideas students find most challenging, like recursion and object-oriented programming, are divided into a sequence of smaller steps and introduced over the course of several chapters.

The focus is on the programming process, with special emphasis on debugging. The book includes a wide range of exercises, from short examples to substantial projects, so that students have ample opportunity to practice each new concept. Exercise solutions and code examples are available from this web site (links are in the book), along with Swampy, a suite of Python programs that is used in some of the exercises.

• Concise and easy-to-read style written for both high school and college students;

• Special emphasis on debugging and the programming process, with examples of program development plans;

• Range of exercises, from short examples to substantial projects, with solutions and example code available on the web.

Contents

1. Preface; 2. The way of the program; 3. Variables, expressions and statements; 4. Functions; 5. Case study: interface design; 6. Conditionals and recursion; 7. Fruitful functions; 8. Iteration; 9. Strings; 10. Case study: word play; 11. Lists; 12. Dictionaries; 13. Tuples; 14. Case study: data structure selection; 15. Files; 16. Classes and objects; 17. Classes and functions; 18. Classes and methods; 19. Inheritance; 20. Case study: tkinter; Appendix 1: debugging.

(ISBN-13: 9780521898119)

Earlier Versions

Earlier versions of this book are available in electronic formats under the GNU Free Documentation License:

• The manuscript for Python for Software Design is available under the working title Think Python.

• This book is a substantially revised version of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python.

• Jeff Elkner, who was my co-author on How to Think, is working on a second edition.

Other Free Books by Allen downey are available from Green Tea Press.