For Instructors

This book was written as a self-teaching instrument. However, much of the material has been pre- tested in my courses at Purdue University. We're on a semester system, with 15 weeks in each semester. Because the introductory programming course is a two-semester sequence, I've written this book to fit those constraints.

Of the 15 weeks available each semester, about 13 weeks are available for instruction. (Exams, breaks, and vacations eat up the other two weeks.) Therefore, the text is comprised of 26 chapters. This means that an average of one chapter is to be covered each week. This is a very manageable reading load on the students. Because we use a lecture and lab approach in teaching this course, this sequencing works nicely for a two-semester course that meets for three hours per week.

If you're in a teaching environment that involves four or five hours of instruction per week, it would be possible to cover the entire book in one semester.

For beginning programming students, the chapters should be read in sequence. Coding examples in one chapter likely draw on programming constructs discussed in earlier chapters. This is why I encourage you to read the entire text from start to finish.