4.5
-
991 ratings
A walkthrough of computer science concepts you must know. Designed for readers who don't care for academic formalities, it's a fast and easy computer science guide. It teaches the foundations you need to program computers effectively. After a simple introduction to discrete math, it presents common algorithms and data structures. It also outlines the principles that make computers and programming languages work.
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ISBN-10
0997316020
ISBN-13
978-0997316025
Print length
186 pages
Language
English
Publisher
Code Energy
Publication date
January 16, 2017
Dimensions
5.4 x 0.5 x 8.4 inches
Item weight
10.4 ounces
ASIN :
B0731JG96F
File size :
11860 KB
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Enabled
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This book is an interesting offering. It attempts to condense a large subset of a standard computer science curriculum in a mere 168 pages--a rather formidable task. The result? It depends on the reader and what he or she expects to get out of it. The book offers a glimpse of important topics usually taught in discrete mathematics, data structures, algorithms, computer architecture, databases, operating systems, and programming languages courses. It offers no practice to the reader and only a few examples, which are carefully chosen for their pedagogical value. Who could benefit though from this fragmented and concisely summarized knowledge? The author targets the casual coder who is missing fundamental knowledge in computer science. The claim that this book can open the door to programming mastery is a bit farfetched, as the material it exposes barely scratches the surface. Nevertheless, it certainly offers good value to the novice coder who aims to explore the computer science field further. This book provides an overview of very important and carefully selected topics, and does so in an approachable and often entertaining way.
Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and general readers.
--D. Papamichail, The College of New Jersey, Choice, Vol. 55 (3), October, 2017)
Wladston Ferreira Filho
Wladston Ferreira Filho is a brazilian programmer who enjoys writing. His first book, "Computer Science Distilled", explains the science of computation in an easy way. His second one, "Computer Science Unleashed" presents concepts programmers leverage to build our digital world, and explains how the Internet works, cybersecurity and data science.
Customer reviews
4.5 out of 5
991 global ratings
Chuck
5
A good computer science reference
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
I am a self-taught python coder, who wanted to learn more about the field without getting bogged down in details for 4 years. So I bought this book to help me get a good overview of major concepts in computer science.
The book does a great job of giving the reader a broad overview of computing concepts ranging from time complexity to databases to memory management.
It’s a great reference for anyone who wants to expand his/her/their horizons beyond their immediate field of expertise.
I found the book easy and fun to read. Also I discovered some concepts that I’d like to explore further.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who has gotten into programming from a non-sc background.
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22 people found this helpful
Garrett
5
Excellent Resource and Jumping-off Point
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023
Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book, and found the author's writing lucid, engaging, concise, yet technical and informative. While it doesn't provide every last detail about every topic introduced (important to note that it does not claim to be a comprehensive and exhaustive resource), it provides more than enough information to get a solid grasp on the concept and provides a jumping-off point for further research on whichever topic you'd like to learn more about.
I personally found the chapter on computers (RAM, CPU, hardware, memory, OS, etc.) very valuable and engaging. One word of caution is that if you're looking to purchase this book as a means to achieve that "AHA!" moment with Big O notation, time and space complexity, things of that nature, this probably won't be it. Like I said before, the author provides an excellent starting point to introduce the contained topics, but these in particular will require quite a bit of additional footwork and practice to absorb.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a better resource, whether you're an absolute beginner or a professional already in the field looking to brush up for an interview or deepen your understanding of foundational knowledge. As a point of reference, I'm a self-taught computer engineer who has been employed in the field for 4 years without a formal computer science degree. I picked up this book hoping to identify areas where my knowledge was lacking, and Computer Science Distilled served that purpose beautifully.
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R. Vartanian
5
Light and Pleasant Intro to CS Concepts
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book is really a pleasure to read, as other reviewers have mentioned it is a great book for beginners or others coming from other fields, and perhaps also a light refresher, to learn and be introduced to fundamental topics of Computer Science and computational thinking. The author presents topics incrementally that build up on top of each other. This book will not teach you the in-depth knowledge you may be seeking but instead presents topics in an easy to understand and fun way where you can dive in and learn more about on your own
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2 people found this helpful
Arvinda R.
5
Great primer for necessary CS core concepts
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book is exactly what I was looking for. When learning programming, you're usually taught a lot of tricks and techniques without fully understanding how they originated or are related.
Upon reading this book I immediately recognised certain topics that I've come across before in disjoint ways and without context (things like endianness, probability theory and Big O notation for e.g.). The book does a great job of collecting, organising and explaining these concepts in an easily digestible format. It starts with core concepts, moves on to how these are expressed language constructs and in the hardware, and then concludes with some practical implementations of these concepts in things anyone learning programming would recognise.
I'd highly recommend for anyone who has even a remote interest in learning from first principles and who has a mind for problem-solving and using code creatively vs. simple rote application of programming techniques and frameworks.
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12 people found this helpful
James Beswick
5
One of the best general CompSci books I've ever read
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2018
Verified Purchase
It's no small feat to take a huge number of complex subjects and explain them this clearly. I had a professor at college with this knack of taking abstract and potentially dull ideas and bringing them to life - you have to combine genuine enthusiasm and deep knowledge to pull this off, and Wladston's writing reminds me of those lectures. The book treads a difficult line perfectly - it's both a useful refresher to CompSci graduates and a solid introduction for those new and interested in the subjects.
The breadth of topics is ambitious, the writing style is clear and detailed, while the presentation makes the concepts flow. There is talk in the appendix of a second book in the series and I really hope the author continues since CompSci is a growing collection is ideas, theories and patterns that even seasoned practitioners don't understand fully. I rarely recommend tech books to everyone but this is a must-read for anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of many of the core subjects.
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2 people found this helpful
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