CSE 303: Concepts and Tools for Software Development

Autumn 2007

Are the textbooks required?

There are two books listed for the course:

1. Linux Pocket Guide by Daniel J. Barrett, O'Reilly, 2004.
2. Programming in C (3rd Ed.) by Stephen G. Kochan, Sams Publishing, 2005.

• (1) is a reference-style books (not textbook) with reliable, useful information related to parts of the course. Much of the information is available elsewhere for free, but the time you save by having this book in your hand is probably well worth the cost.
• (2) is more like a textbook, but we will not follow it closely. It can provide an excellent second-explanation for topics related to C, but you will be responsible only for the topics discussed in class or investigated on homeworks. Many students struggle with C, and the explanations in this text may prove very useful.
• Many of the topics covered in the course are not covered by any of the texts. However, they are covered well by free resources such as man pages and web pages.
• Having good reference books should prove useful in many parts of the CSE curriculum and even after you graduate. So these are excellent books to have even if much of the information is available elsewhere.
• If you would like even more information about Linux, shells, emacs, etc. in your hands, "Linux in a Nutshell" published by O'Reilly has about 900 pages of useful stuff. (Apparently the nutshell is for a rather large nut.)

Bottom line: It is possible for some students to get all the information they need in this course without the textbooks since they will only occasionally be referred to. However, they are good books with lots of information and alternate explanations, so not getting them and making the course and your future endeavors more difficult may be a very bad idea.