From Computing to Computational Thinking

Paul S. Wang

• Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351630221
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming Games
• Index: Computer Science

Computational Thinking (CT) involves fundamental concepts and reasoning, distilled from computer science and other computational sciences, which become powerful general mental tools for solving problems, increasing efficiency, reducing complexity, designing procedures, or interacting with humans and machines. An easy-to-understand guidebook, From Computing to Computational Thinking gives you the tools for understanding and using CT. It does not assume experience or knowledge of programming or of a programming language, but explains concepts and methods for CT with clarity and depth.

Successful applications in diverse disciplines have shown the power of CT in problem solving. The book uses puzzles, games, and everyday examples as starting points for discussion and for connecting abstract thinking patterns to real-life situations. It provides an interesting and thought-provoking way to gain general knowledge about modern computing and the concepts and thinking processes underlying modern digital technologies.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

1.1 The Computer

1.2 Turing Machine

CT: ABSTRACT AWAY

1.3 A Brief History of Computers

1.4 Software

1.5 Programming

1.6 Syntax and Semantics

CT: BEWARE OF SEMANTICS

1.7 Flowcharts

CT: READY FOR ALL CONTINGENCIES

CT: FIRST THINGS FIRST

CT: CHECK BEFORE PROCEEDING

1.8 Algorithms

CT: MAKE IT AN ALGORITHM

CT: CONSIDER EXTREME CASES

1.9 Pseudo Code

CT: STEP BY STEP

1.10 The Euclidean GCD Algorithm

CT: APPLY DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

1.11 Goals and How to Get There

CT: BREAK IT DOWN

1.12 Road Crossing

Exercises

2 Bits, Bytes, and Words

2.1 Digital Computers

2.2 Binary Numbers

CT: MEANING OF SYMBOLS

2.2.1 Numbers in Other Bases

CT: EVALUATE DIFFERENT OPTIONS

2.3 Positive and Negative Integers

2.4 Modular Arithmetic

CT: MIND RESOURCE LIMITATIONS

CT: SYMBOLS CAN BE DECEIVING

2.5 Base Conversion

CT: START FROM THE END

2.6 Characters

2.6.1 US-ASCII

2.6.2 Unicode

CT: DATA CONTEXT

2.7 Editing Text

2.8 Data Output

CT: DELIVER THE MESSAGE

Exercises

3 True or False

3.1 Digital Electronic Circuits

CT: NOTICE THE LOGIC

CT: BOTTOM UP

CT: CREATE A VIRTUOUS CYCLE

3.2 Boolean Algebra

3.2.1 Expressions and Laws

3.2.2 Universal Gates

3.3 Decision Making

CT: LOGIC CHECKS

3.3.1 Conditions and Implications

CT: FOLLOW THE LOGIC

3.4 Logic Applied to Bits

CT: COMBINE BASIC COMPONENTS

3.5 Logic and Iteration

3.5.1 The while Loop

3.5.2 The for Loop

CT: PERFORM EVERYDAY PROGRAMMING

Exercises

4 Who Is the Master?

4.1 What Is an Operating System?

4.2 Operating System Kernel

4.2.1 System Programs

4.3 Open Source Software

CT: PROMOTE FREE AND OPEN

4.4 Graphical User Interface

4.5 Desktop Overview

4.5.1 Desktop Components

CT: KNOW YOUR ARENA

4.6 Are You Talking to Me?

4.6.1 Input Focus

CT: PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS

4.6.2 Event Handling

4.7 Command-Line Interface

CT: MIND THE TRADE-OFF

4.8 Files

4.8.1 File Content Types

4.8.2 File Tree

CT: LEARN FROM TREES

4.8.3 File Management and Access Control

4.9 Processes

CT: KEEP IT IN CONTEXT

CT: CAPTURE THE STATE

4.9.1 Process Lifecycle

4.9.2 Process Address Space

4.9.3 Virtual Address Space Layout

4.9.4 Address Mapping

CT: TIMESHARING

4.10 Managing Tasks

4.11 Up and Running

CT: BETTER CONTROL BETTER SYSTEM

Exercises

5 Hello There!

5.1 What Is a Network?

5.2 The Internet

5.3 Local and Wide Area Networks

5.4 Internet Architecture

CT: REDUNDANCY FOR SAFETY

CT: ONE AND ALL

5.5 Wireless Networking

5.6 Networking Protocols

CT: FOLLOW PROTOCOL

5.7 IP Addresses

5.8 Domain Names

5.9 Client and Server

CT: INTEROPERATE

5.10 Peer to Peer

5.11 DNS Service

CT: INDIRECTION ADDS FLEXIBILITY

5.12 DNS Servers and Resolvers

CT: DECENTRALIZE

5.13 Domain Registration

5.13.1 Accessing Domain Registration Data

5.14 Packet Switching

5.15 Cloud Computing

CT: BACKUP IN THE CLOUD

Exercises

6 Home Sweet Homepage :-)

6.1 What Is a Web Server?

6.2 Web Browsers

6.3 A Brief History of the Web

6.4 URLs

CT: BE AWARE OF THE IMPLICIT CONTEXT

6.4.1 URL Encoding

CT: WEAR DIFFERENT HATS

6.5 HTML and HTML5

CT: MARK IT UP

6.6 Webpage Styling

6.7 Web Hosting

CT: REALLY USE YOUR WEBSITE

CT: BE CAREFUL WITH ONLINE INFORMATION

6.8 Dynamic Generation of Webpages

6.8.1 Active Server Pages

6.8.2 Database Access

6.9 Client-Side Scripting

6.10 Hypertext Transfer Protocol

6.10.1 HTTP Caching

CT: CACHE FOR SPEED

6.11 Website Development

CT: DEVELOP FOR USERS

6.12 Web Search Engines

CT: GOOGLE IT

CT: BELIEVE IT OR NOT

6.13 Web Services

6.14 Standard Web Technologies

Exercises

7 Keeping It Safe

7.1 Login

7.1.1 Website Login

CT: SAFEGUARD SECURITY REALMS

CT: PREVENT ILLICIT LOGIN

7.2 HTTPS and SSL/TLS

7.3 What Is a Digital Certificate?

7.4 Cryptography

7.4.1 Symmetric Cryptosystems

CT: SECURE SENSITIVE FILES

CT: ADD SECURITY LAYERS

7.5 Public-Key Cryptography

CT: BREAKTHROUGH

CT: BEWARE OF BUGS

7.6 RSA Public-Key Algorithm

7.7 Digital Signature

CT: SIGN DIGITALLY

7.8 Message Digests

7.9 Secure Email

7.9.1 Secure Email with Thunderbird

CT: FREE FROM SURVEILLANCE

7.10 Security Attacks and Defenses

CT: ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL

Exercises

8 Solve That Problem

8.1 Solving Puzzles

8.1.1 Egg Frying

8.1.2 Liquid Measuring

8.1.3 A Magic Tray

8.2 Sorting

8.2.1 Bubble Sort

8.2.2 Improved Bubble Sort

CT: CUT IT DOWN

CT: BUILD IT UP

CT: STEPWISE REFINEMENT

CT: VERSION 2.O

8.3 Recursion

CT: REMEMBER RECURSION

8.3.1 Quicksort

8.4 Recursive Solution Formula

CT: APPLY THE RECURSION MAGIC

8.5 Tower of Hanoi

8.6 Eight Queens

8.7 General Backtracking

8.8 Tree Traversals

CT: FORM TREE STRUCTURES

8.9 Complexity

CT: WEIGH SPEED VS. COMPLEXITY

8.10 Heuristics

CT: DEVISE HEURISTICS

Exercises

9 Data everywhere

CT: GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT

9.1 Digital Images

9.1.1 Representing Color

9.2 Raster Image Encoding

9.2.1 Raster Image Formats

CT: SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

9.2.2 Vector Graphics

9.2.3 Scalable Vector Graphics

9.3 Audio and Video

9.3.1 Digital Audio

9.3.2 Audio Encoding Formats

9.4 Digital Video

9.4.1 Video Containers

9.4.2 Video Codecs

9.5 Format of Data and Files

CT: INTERPRETING DATA

CT: DATA IS APPLICATION DEPENDENT

CT: SAVE TREES WITH PDF

9.6 Data Sharing

9.7 Document Markup

9.7.1 What Is XML?

9.7.2 XML Document Format

9.7.3 XML for News Syndication

CT: MARKUP FOR INTEROPERABILITY

9.8 Data Compression

CT: COMPRESSION IS NOT ENCRYPTION

9.8.1 LZ Deflation

9.8.2 Huffman Code

CT: CUSTOMIZE FOR EFFICIENCY

9.9 Data Structures

CT: SYNTHESIZE AND SIMPLIFY

9.10 What Is a Database?

9.10.1 Relational Databases

9.10.2 SQL: Structured Query Language

CT: COMBINE WEB AND DATABASE

9.10.3 Big Data

CT: DATA ...