A unique approach to “Intro CS.” In a nutshell, the authors of this book's objective is to provide an introduction to computer science as an intellectually rich and vibrant field rather than focusing exclusively on computer programming. While programming is certainly an important and pervasive element of their approach, they emphasize concepts and problem-solving over syntax and programming language features.

This book is a companion to the course “CS for All” developed at Harvey Mudd College and subsequently adopted at a variety of colleges and universities. At Mudd, this course is taken by almost every first-year student - irrespective of the student’s ultimate major - as part of the college’s core curriculum. The offering is also taken by many students at the Claremont Colleges, including students majoring in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. Thus, it serves as a first computing course for students regardless of their major.

This book is intended to be used with the substantial resources that we have developed for the course. These resources include complete lecture slides, a rich collection of weekly assignments, some accompanying software, documentation, and papers that have been published about the course. The authors have deliberately kept this book relatively short and have endeavored to make it fun and readable.

The content of this book is an accurate reflection of the content of the course rather than an intimidating encyclopedic tome that can’t possibly be covered in a single semester. The book has been written in the belief that a student can read all of it comfortably as the course proceeds.