Java: An Eventful Approach

Teaching a truly object-oriented language like Java is far different than teaching a language like C or C++. As a result, this text demonstrates a major rethinking in pedagogy that has been tested thoroughly at a number of major universities and other four-year and two-year institutions. Good examples of objects and a comprehensive library that supports object-oriented graphics foster student understanding and instructor effectiveness. The library provides “training wheels” to help students get started with using these features, but they are taught the standard Java features as they are ready.

Kim B. Bruce, Reuben C. and Eleanor Winslow Professor of Computer Science at Pomona College, holds a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin at Madison, and formerly taught at Williams College and Princeton University. He has served on several national curriculum committees in computer science, and earned the 2005 SIGCSE award for outstanding contributions to CS education.

Andrea Pohoreckyj Danyluk, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Williams, holds a Ph.D. from Columbia, and has contributed to the ACM/IEEE Task Force' on Computing Curricula.

Thomas P. Murtagh, Professor of Computer Science at Williams, holds a Ph.D. from Cornell and formerly taught at Purdue. He has published on CS pedagogy and curricular design, and on topics ranging from compiler optimization to operating system design.