Computer Science: An Overview lives up to its title, providing the broad coverage and clear explanations of the entire computer science discipline that have made it the leading textbook for the breadth-first/CS0 course. This language-independent book introduces students to the discipline of computer science by providing accurate and balanced coverage of a variety of computer science topics, including programming languages, operating systems, algorithms, software engineering, and machine architecture. The sixth edition has been thoroughly updated to discuss increasingly important trends such as networking, object-oriented programming, and software engineering. It features new sections on public key encryption, evolutionary programming, and genetic algorithms, as well as thoroughly revised sections on data manipulation, operating systems, and networking. It features material on the move towards object-oriented software engineering with new sections covering Design Patterns and UML. Thought-provoking discussions of ethical and legal issues revolving around computing are integrated into each chapter so they are presented in the context of the material being covered at that time. J. Glenn Brookshear is a master of making even the most complex topics accessible to students through the use of real-life analogies and concrete examples.