Books by John S. (University of Oregon Conery

Designed for CS0 and CS1 courses, this textbook teaches computer science students how to use programming skills to explore fundamental concepts and computational approaches to solving problems. It uses Python as the lab software so that students can seamlessly transition from introductory projects to more advanced studies in later courses.

Based on a course taught by the author, this textbook provides an introduction to computer science for non-majors or pre-majors in beginning courses. The book uses an active learning and problem-solving approach to present key topics in computer science, along with real-world examples and practical algorithms. The author explains how to read, rather than write, programs and how to solve problems. To provide a good understanding of computing without covering everything in the field, short focused chapters include tutorial projects and interactive labs that use Ruby, a simple open-source language.