CS 1 Readings

This is the location of the readings for CS 1 @ Caltech.

These readings were mostly authored by Prof. Vanier. with many ideas and suggestions coming from Prof. Blank.

Please direct all comments about these readings to Prof. Vanier. In particular, he is very interested in hearing about

1. Typos and errors.
2. Anything that isn't clear.
3. Suggestions for topics that aren't covered but should be.

Dark mode and grey mode

Since reading a website with a bright white background can be hard on the eyes, this site can be switched to "dark mode" (dark background, light text) or "grey mode" (grey background, dark text) by clicking on the icon at the top of the page to the immediate left of the search bar.

Footnotes

Most readings have a number of footnotes. You don't have to read these! They include extra information "for the curious", sometimes relating the material to other programming languages, other computer science topics, and/or other Caltech CS courses. Sometimes I just use it to tell silly jokes! You can always skip the footnotes and read them later if you want.

Feedback is welcome!

We like getting feedback! It will help make these readings better for future CS 1 classes, so don't be shy about emailing us if you think something can be explained better.