PREFACERecently, a new set of curriculum recommendations was published in ComputingCurricula 1991: Report of the ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Curriculum Task Force. Amajor theme of this report is that the introductory computer science courses shouldinclude an introduction to the various areas of computer science: ~ Architecture ~ Artificial Intelligence and Robotics ~ Database and Information Retrieval ~ Human-Computer Communication ~ Numerical and Symbolic Computation ~ Operating Systems ~ Programming Languages ~ Software Methodology and Engineering ~ Social, Ethical, and Professional ContextFeeling that this was an important objective in the early computer science courses,we included several examples and exercises from several of these areas in theprevious edition of this text. In this new edition we have expanded and improved these examples, trying tocapture the spirit of these curriculum guidelines in a natural, unobtrusive way. Wewere guided by the recommendations of the Curriculum '91 report and by sugges-tions made by reviewers and users of the previous edition. These examples havebeen carefully selected to provide an overview of the discipline of computer sci-ence and to provide a foundation for further study in theoretical and/or appliedcomputer science. They have been highlighted in seventeen special PART OF THEPICTURE sections, which we marked with an icon in the shape of a puzzle piece.These sections include:~ History of Computing~ Computer Organization~ Social, Professional, and Ethical Issues~ Syntax and Semantics~ Numeric Computation (Curve Fitting: Least Squares Line; Solving Equa- tions; Numerical Integration; Matrix Multiplication; Solving Linear Sys- tems)