The tremendous development of computer applications has made education in the use of computers increasingly important. Someone who wants to solve problems using a computer must learn at least one programming language, and most computer textbooks are designed to teach programming in a specific language. Thus, anyone who has such a textbook and a suitable computer can begin writing programs. But it became clear many years ago that problem analysis and algorithm design are more important than writing programs (i.e., coding algorithms in a specific programming language).

An excellent feature of this book is its emphasis on the essential mental activities of program design. The authors present the principles of modern program design (structure and modularity) using methods that resemble natural language--pseudocode, input/process/output (IPO) diagrams, and structure charts. These methods are quite suitable for describing the mental activities.

This tutorial on program design is independent of any programming language. Its purpose is to provide a deep understanding of the principles of programming design and the verification of correctness, using such modern concepts as structuring, modularity, and subprograms.

It is well known that only a small part of program design (about 20 percent) consists of writing the program. The rest is testing, debugging, documentation, and modification. Many programmers yield to the temptation of hurrying to write programs, then have trouble in the rest of these activities. Thus, a program must be well designed. One of the book’s main features is that it keeps the designer away from the programming language until the design is complete.

This book will be helpful for three kinds of users. Beginners can learn how to design a program methodically and correctly. Experienced programmers can revise their practical methods; they will find many topics that they have already seen, presented in a structured manner. Teachers of programming languages will find a good, clear way to present the main concepts of their subject.

What impressed me (as an experienced programmer and teacher) most about this book is that the essential ideas are arranged in a logical order. All the chapter mottos are very good and the authors use them to show how programming is a part of the mental activity of design.

The first seven chapters present the fundamental concepts of programming. Chapter 7, on the correctness of programs and input data, is new in this edition; this very important topic is not covered in most programming textbooks. Chapters 8–10 deal with additional elements of programming.

The appendices describe the standard programming languages , , and Pascal. The authors give some indications of how to use these languages to implement the pseudocoded algorithms. Experienced programmers will find these appendices useful, but beginners cannot use them until they have learned these languages.

The book has no references. It is a reference book itself, but I think it should list other related books. The physical form and the index are very good. This book is an excellent classroom text. The examples are good and the exercises, drawn from everyday life, are numerous and interesting, although some variants of the examples are too simple and could be omitted.