Authors:
Revolutionary introduction to programming
First introductory programming book to use concepts of Design by Contract for software safety and reliability
Examples and exercises allow all students to build graphical and multimedia applications right from the start
Includes introductions into Java, C#, and C++ of 30 pages each to enable easy application of presented concepts in various object-oriented languages
Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (25 chapters)
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Front Matter
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How things work
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Front Matter
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Algorithms and data structures
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Front Matter
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Object-Oriented Techniques
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Front Matter
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About this book
From object technology pioneer and ETH Zurich professor Bertrand Meyer, winner of the Jolt award and the ACM Software System Award, a revolutionary textbook that makes learning programming fun and rewarding. Meyer builds his presentation on a rich object-oriented software system supporting graphics and multimedia, which students can use to produce impressive applications from day one, then understand inside out as they learn new programming techniques.
Unique to Touch of Class is a combination of a practical, hands-on approach to programming with the introduction of sound theoretical support focused on helping students learn the construction of high quality software. The use of full color brings exciting programming concepts to life.
Among the useful features of the book is the use of Design by Contract, critical to software quality and providing a gentle introduction to formal methods.
Will give students a major advantage by teaching professional-level techniques in a literate, relaxed and humorous way.
Reviews
From the reviews:
“This book ‘is not just about learning to program but about ’Learning to program Well.’’ Meyer’s latest text conveys his impressive experience in the field of computer science, going well beyond just software engineering. … the target audience includes both students and teachers. …The large quantity of information provided is well organized. … Colors are plentiful and character fonts play an important role. …Coming from a father of object orientation and software quality, it is not surprising that this is an excellent book.” (Alexandre Bergel, ACM Computing Reviews, January, 2010)
“The best thing about this book, and it is a very good thing indeed, is that it is thorough. … The material is well-written and thorough – it includes introductory material aimed at the student, then at the instructor. … this is an excellent book. If I were put in the position of needing to teach an elementary programming course … this would be high on my list of candidate textbooks.” (Robert L. Glass, The Software Practitioner, January-February, 2010)“This nicely written and enjoyable textbook is used for the ‘Introduction to programming’ course taught at ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) to all entering computing science students. … In addition to the excellent book, Meyer provides an outstanding web site (http://touch.ethz.ch/) with a huge amount of material including course slides, video recording of lectures, slides for exercise sessions, a lot of information for instructors, software downloads, and, of course, blogs and wikis.” (Haim Kilov, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1188, 2010)
"Touch of Class: Learning to Program Well with Objects and Contracts" (ToC) is an excellent book to read. (…) Instead of teaching a whole lot of details from the bottom up, it explains from the top, giving the whole picture, why things are done and then down to the details of how they are done. Meyer also calls this outside-in. You can see the whole at once and then explain the details. This is how programming should be — using broad concepts, rather than narrow implementation details. ( Ian Joyner on https://siliconvalleyhype.quora.com/, Jan 2022).
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Bertrand Meyer
About the author
Professor of Software Engineering, ETH Zurich, since 2001. Department head (2004-2006).
ACM Software System Award, 2007
Dahl-Nygaard Object Technology Award, 2006
Doctor Honoris Causæ, State Technical University of Saint Petersburg (ITMO), 2006
Member of the French Academy of Technology
Publisher of the Journal of Object Technology
President, Informatics Europe (association of European computer science departments)
Formerly: visiting associate professor at Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; professor (adjunct) at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Touch of Class
Book Subtitle: Learning to Program Well with Objects and Contracts
Authors: Bertrand Meyer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92145-5
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-540-92144-8Published: 31 July 2009
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-662-51907-3Published: 23 August 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-540-92145-5Published: 29 June 2009
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: LXIV, 876
Topics: Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems, Programming Techniques, Software Engineering