Programming Essentials Using Java: A Game Application Approach

  • 10h 58m
  • S. Jane Fritz, William McAllister
  • Mercury Learning
  • 2017

This is a one-semester, introductory programming textbook in Java that uses game applications as a central pedagogical tool to improve student engagement, learning outcomes, and retention. Game programming is incorporated into the text in a way that does not compromise the amount of material traditionally covered in a basic programming course and permits instructors who are not familiar with game programming and computer graphics concepts to realize the verified pedagogical advantages of game applications. The material presented in the book is in full compliance with the 2013 ACM/IEEE computer science curriculum guidelines and AP Programming course guidelines. It has been used to teach programming to students whose majors are within and outside of the computing fields.

FEATURES

  • Uses an objects-early approach to learning Java
  • Follows the 2013 ACM/IEEE computer science curriculum guidelines and AP Programming course guidelines
  • Integrates game applications as a central pedagogical tool to improve student engagement, learning outcomes, and retention
  • Uses working programs to illustrate concepts under discussion
  • Complete instructor’s resource package available upon adoption

About the Authors

William McAllister (St. Joseph’s College, NY) has taught a wide range of computer science courses that include programming, computer graphics, and data structures and he has also authored a data structures textbook.

S. Jane Fritz (St. Joseph’s College, NY) has taught programming courses in BASIC, Visual Basic, Pascal, C, C++, and Java. She has also co-authored several papers and has given a number of presentations at SIGCSE Conferences.

In this Book

  • Introduction
  • Variables, Input/Output, and Calculations
  • Methods, Classes, and Objects: a First Look
  • Boolean Expressions, Making Decisions, and Disk Input and Output
  • Repeating Statements: Loops
  • Arrays
  • Methods, Classes, and Objects: a Second Look
  • Inheritance
  • Recursion
  • The API Collections Framework