Understanding Programming: An Introduction Using Java (with InfoTrac)

This text is focused on teaching Java as a first language using two principles: First, students learn best when they see and appreciate an immediate need. Second, students learn best by doing and experiencing. In the first few chapters, the book starts with a breadth-first approach. Students learn one way to do I/O, one variable type, one way to do a condition, and one loop statement. Quickly, students begin coding useful and interesting programs with this subset of Java. Taking a spiral approach, the author introduces a concept or method in simplified form and gradually, as the need for more capability is demonstrated, expands upon it until the full concept is presented. Chapters are teaching units, not topic units, and the text avoids teaching mechanisms and concepts that allow errors students are not yet ready to understand. Students gain confidence and are excited to learn more as the course progresses.