Talking With Computers



Explores a wide range of fundamental topics in computer science, from digital logic and machine language to artificial intelligence and the World Wide Web, explaining how computers and computer programs work and how the various subfields of computer science are interconnected. Dean touches on a number of questions including: How can a computer learn to recognize junk email? What happens when you click on a link in a browser? How can you program a robot to do two things at once? Are there limits to what computers can do? Readers are encouraged to experiment with short programs and fragments of code written in several languages to strip away the mystery and reveal the underlying computational ideas. The full text is now available on the web as are extensive supplementary materials including code from the book, tips on finding and installing software, links to online resources, exercises and an instruction manual for students and teachers.
The text is published by Cambridge University Press.