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Computer Science from the Bottom Up

bottomupcs.com

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Re: Computer Science from the Bottom Up

#4

Post by LX-350 »

aneisf wrote: post #2

Judging from the ToC, this seems way more Operating Systems-centric than Computer Science, doesn't it?

From the intro:

"Not everyone wants to attend shop class. Most people only want to drive the car, not know how to build one from scratch. Obviously any general computing curriculum has to take this into account else it won't be relevant to its students. So computer science is taught from the "top down"; applications, high level programming, software design and development theory, possibly data structures. Students will probably be exposed to binary, hopefully binary logic, possibly even some low level concepts such as registers, opcodes and the like at a superficial level.

This book aims to move in completely the opposite direction, working from operating systems fundamentals through to how those applications are complied and executed."

Re: Computer Science from the Bottom Up

#5

Post by theseoafs »

LX-350 wrote: post #4
aneisf wrote: post #2

Judging from the ToC, this seems way more Operating Systems-centric than Computer Science, doesn't it?

From the intro: "Not everyone wants to attend shop class. Most people only want to drive the car, not know how to build one from scratch. Obviously any general computing curriculum has to take this into account else it won't be relevant to its students. So computer science is taught from the "top down"; applications, high level programming, software design and development theory, possibly data structures. Students wi…

Sure, but none of that has much to do with computer science. This should more accurately be called "bottom up Unix".

Re: Computer Science from the Bottom Up

#6

Post by Someone »

"from the bottom up" and the _first_ chapter is called "General Unix and Advanced C"? This book may be useful, but I would look for another name (I wouldn't even mention computer science, but that may be because I agree with Dijkstra that that isn't science or about computers). I also think a generic computer science book shouldn't only use Linux as example OS.

Also, if chapter 1 is about _advanced_C_, why does chapter 2 have to introduce binary and hexadecimal notation? I think the book could be improved here, too; in general, the TOC feels unbalanced to me.

Re: Computer Science from the Bottom Up

#8

Post by UK-AL »

LX-350 wrote: post #4
aneisf wrote: post #2

Judging from the ToC, this seems way more Operating Systems-centric than Computer Science, doesn't it?

From the intro: "Not everyone wants to attend shop class. Most people only want to drive the car, not know how to build one from scratch. Obviously any general computing curriculum has to take this into account else it won't be relevant to its students. So computer science is taught from the "top down"; applications, high level programming, software design and development theory, possibly data structures. Students wi…

Very few bits of what you just said have anything to do with computer science. Maybe data structures, and logic.

Re: Computer Science from the Bottom Up

#9

Post by CocaKoala »

theseoafs wrote: post #5
LX-350 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the intro: "Not everyone wants to attend shop class. Most people only want to drive the car, not know how to build one from scratch. Obviously any general computing curriculum has to take this into account else it won't be relevant to its students. So computer science is taught from the "top down"; applications, high level programming, software design and development theory, possibly data structures. Students wi…

Sure, but none of that has much to do with computer science. This should more accurately be called "bottom up Unix".

Yeah, I feel like this is trying to answer the question "What is a computer" instead of "what is computer science". Still a really interesting question, but definitely not what I was expecting.
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