Programming for Engineers

To learn to program is to be initiated into an entirely new way of thinking about engineering, mathematics, and the world in general. Computation is integral to all modern engineering disciplines, so the better you are at programming, the better you will be in your chosen field. This book departs ra [...]
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To learn to program is to be initiated into an entirely new way of thinking about engineering, mathematics, and the world in general. Computation is integral to all modern engineering disciplines, so the better you are at programming, the better you will be in your chosen field. This book departs radically from the typical presentation by teaching concepts and techniques in a rigorous manner rather than listing how to use libraries and functions. The author presents pointers in the very first chapter as part of the development of a computational model that facilitates an ab initio presentation of subjects such as function calls, call-by-reference, arrays, the stack, and the heap. The model also allows students to practice the essential skill of memory manipulation throughout the entire course rather than just at the end. As a result, this textbook goes further than is typical for a one-semester course -- abstract data types and linked lists, for example, are covered in depth.The computational model will also serve students in their adventures with programming beyond the course: instead of falling back on rules, they can think through the model to decide how a new programming concept fits with what they already know. Another departure from the norm is the emphasis on programming from scratch: most exercises do not provide starter code. The author expects students to leave the course knowing how to open a text editor, write one or multiple program files, compile the code, and execute and debug the resulting program. The book covers two programming languages: C and Matlab. The computational model and concepts of modularity are developed in the context of C. Matlab provides an engineering context into which students can transfer their mastery of programming from C. It also provides an environment in which students can be critical users of libraries. The book is appropriate for undergraduate students of engineering and computer science, and graduate students of other disciplines. It contains many exercises integrated into the main text, and the author has made the source code available online.