This free, on-line book is used for the well-known CS1 course at Harvey Mudd College. The approach is very similar to ours and this book will be the primary textbook for our course. The organization of our course follows the outline of the book in broad outline but not in detail. You are responsible for keeping up with the reading in this text.

The book is based on an MIT course (which became the most popular course offered through MIT's OpenCourseWare) and was developed for use not only in a conventional classroom but in a massive open online course (or MOOC) offered by the pioneering MIT-Harvard collaboration edX.

This book can be purchased for about $25 through Amazon.

This book is a relatively easy introductory text. There is a free on-line PDF version that may (or may not) be identical to the published version. This book is good for reference or if you would like further discussion of a particular topic.