Problem Solving and Programming in Turbo Pascal Publisher/ISBN/Ordering Information Description of Book Preface Table of Contents

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Preface to Problem Solving and Programming in Turbo Pascal

Computer Programming is approximately forty years old and problem solving (both as concept and goal) has been with us since the beginning.

In the past, one of the common difficulties with problem solving-based computer science textbooks was that problem solving was often very much subjugated to programming language issues. Other textbooks tended to select a single systematic way of creating a computer program, usually by the step-by-step refinement technique, and apply it throughout the book to all programs.

In Problem Solving and Programming in Turbo Pascal, I have tried to create a text in which problem solving is much more than a servant of computer programming. Rather, I have tried to use computer programming as a means of illustrating various problem solving techniques. (This means that chapter headings that are a normal part of a book dedicated to computer programming do not appear. For example, searching and sorting is spread over several chapters that have titles concerning problem solving methods.)

I have tried to organize the sections in a useful and intuitive manner. In each chapter I have attempted to build successively on the concepts learned from previous chapters. It is important to note however, that individual teachers may have other preferences and so may wish to deal with the chapters in a different order.

I have also attempted to pose problems that all students can relate to. I have begun the book with arithmetic problems because here the idea of abstraction appears most naturally, for example, that 2 + 2 = 4. It is not my intention though, to push the solution of mathematical problems as the only way to approach the subject. Graphics-based problems are just as demanding and intriguing. Programs that produce graphical output also have a great appeal for students and provide a natural way of involving them and encouraging then to learn new skills in their search for the most dynamic graphic.

In Problem Solving and Programming in Turbo Pascal, graphics, in the form of character graphics, are used as soon as the notion of repetition is introduced. Pixel graphics comes a little later.

For each chapter I have included an Errors You Might Make section, in hope of assisting students to identify possible areas of difficulty, and thus saving them from frustration. Students should be encouraged to read these carefully to ensure that they recognize that these list mistakes to be avoided.

Every effort has been made to provide information for students in a readable, straightforward, and friendly manner. The sections have been laid out with easy-to-find subject headings. The Table of Contents and the Index will help all readers find specific information. A Glossary of Technical Terms has been provided to help students with the subject vocabulary. The language of the text is directed at the average high school student. My goal here was to make it as clear and readable as possible without over simplifying the material. It should be noted, however, that students with language difficulties may require additional assistance.

The name Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International, Inc. The language contains extensions to the language designed by Niklaus Wirth in 1971, known now as Standard Pascal. Standard Pascal contains control constructs that permit structured programming and was intended to be a language with a small number of basic syntactic elements. Since its introduction, a number of different sets of extensions to the language have been introduced. The various extended Pascal languages are not compatible with each other. The set of extensions introduced in Turbo Pascal have become, in a sense, standard in that there are many users of this particular dialect of Pascal.

In this book I have used many of the extensions of Turbo Pascal without worrying that the resulting programs will not run under a Standard Pascal system. I have not mentioned a number of the parts of Standard Pascal that are associated with more advanced programming concepts such as sets, enumerated and subrange types, variant records, and packed arrays. As well, there are many subprograms of the Turbo Pascal run-time library that I have omitted. The version of Turbo Pascal used is 7.0. Some of its features may not be available if you are using earlier versions. The graphics programs have been tested on VGA graphics and may not work, without modification, for CGA.

Computer science has undergone many changes in the last forty years, and of all subject areas that we teach, it is perhaps the most fluid and hence interesting. The development of good programming languages like Turbo Pascal has allowed us to progress from spaghetti programs that were unstructured, error prone, and unmanageable to structured programs with proper control constructs. With these improvements, programs are no longer labyrinths of control. As teachers, this means that we are now free to concentrate on the important ideas of computer science.

Now it is time to marry the power of the computer to the human activity of problem solving. And that is what I have tried to do in this book.

J.N. Patterson Hume
University of Toronto

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