Kirjahaku

1 The Purpose of This Text This text has been written in response to two trends that have gained considerable momentum over the past few years. The first is the decision by many undergraduate engineering and science departments to abandon the traditional programming course based on the aging Fortran 77 standard. This decision is not surprising, considering the more modem features found in languages such as Pascal and C. However, Pascal never developed a strong following in scientific computing, and its use is in decline. The new Fortran 90 standard defines a powerful, modem language, but this long-overdue redesign of Fortran has come too late to prevent many colleges and universities from switching to C. The acceptance of C by scientists and engineers is based perhaps as. much on their perceptions of C as an important language, which it certainly is, and on C programming experience as a highly marketable skill, as it is on the suitability of C for scientific computation. For whatever reason, C or its derivative C++ is now widely taught as the first and often only programming language for undergraduates in science and engineering. The second trend is the evolving nature of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. At a growing number of institutions, the traditional approach of stressing theory and mathematics fundamentals in the early undergraduate years, and postponing real engineering applications until later in the curriculum, has been turned upside down.

This book enables readers to quickly develop a working knowledge of HTML, JavaScript and PHP. The text emphasizes a hands-on approach to learning and makes extensive use of examples. A detailed science, engineering, or mathematics background is not required to understand the material, making the book ideally suitable for self-study or an introductory course in programming. Features: describes the creation and use of HTML documents; presents fundamental concepts of client-side and server-side programming languages; examines JavaScript and PHP implementation of arrays, built-in and user-defined methods and functions, math capabilities, and input processing with HTML forms; extends programming fundamentals to include reading and writing server-based files, command-line interfaces, and an introduction to GD graphics; appendices include a brief introduction to using a “pseudocode” approach to organizing solutions to computing problems; includes a Glossary and an extensive set of programming exercises.

In 1998, my colleague, Forrest Mims, and I began a project to develop inexpensive handheld atmosphere monitoring instruments for the GLOBE Program, an international environmental science and education program that began its operations on Earth Day, 1995. GLOBE’s goal was to involve students, teachers, and scientists around the world in authentic partn- ships in which scientists would develop instrumentation and experimental protocols suitable for student use. In return, data collected by students and their teachers would be used by scientists in their research. This kind of collaboration represented a grand vision for science education which had never before been attempted on such a scale, and we embraced this vision with great enthusiasm. Between 1998 and 2006, Forrest Mims and I collaborated on the development of several instruments based on Mims’ original concept of using light emitting diodes as spectrally selective detectors of sunlight, which was first published in the peer-reviewed literature in 1992. These instruments have evolved into a set of tools and procedures for monitoring the transmission of sunlight through the atmosphere, and they can be used to learn a great deal about the composition of the atmosphere and the dynamics of the Earth/atmosphere/sun system. If measurements with these instruments are made properly, they have significant scientific value, as well.

This book enables readers to quickly develop a working knowledge of HTML, JavaScript and PHP. The text emphasizes a hands-on approach to learning and makes extensive use of examples. A detailed science, engineering, or mathematics background is not required to understand the material, making the book ideally suitable for self-study or an introductory course in programming. Features: describes the creation and use of HTML documents; presents fundamental concepts of client-side and server-side programming languages; examines JavaScript and PHP implementation of arrays, built-in and user-defined methods and functions, math capabilities, and input processing with HTML forms; extends programming fundamentals to include reading and writing server-based files, command-line interfaces, and an introduction to GD graphics; appendices include a brief introduction to using a “pseudocode” approach to organizing solutions to computing problems; includes a Glossary and an extensive set of programming exercises.

1 The Purpose of This Text This text has been written in response to two trends that have gained considerable momentum over the past few years. The first is the decision by many undergraduate engineering and science departments to abandon the traditional programming course based on the aging Fortran 77 standard. This decision is not surprising, considering the more modem features found in languages such as Pascal and C. However, Pascal never developed a strong following in scientific computing, and its use is in decline. The new Fortran 90 standard defines a powerful, modem language, but this long-overdue redesign of Fortran has come too late to prevent many colleges and universities from switching to C. The acceptance of C by scientists and engineers is based perhaps as. much on their perceptions of C as an important language, which it certainly is, and on C programming experience as a highly marketable skill, as it is on the suitability of C for scientific computation. For whatever reason, C or its derivative C++ is now widely taught as the first and often only programming language for undergraduates in science and engineering. The second trend is the evolving nature of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. At a growing number of institutions, the traditional approach of stressing theory and mathematics fundamentals in the early undergraduate years, and postponing real engineering applications until later in the curriculum, has been turned upside down.

i.l Overview for Instructors The purpose of this text is to provide an introduction to the problem-solving capabilities of Fortran 90. The intended audience is undergraduate science and engineering students who have not previously taken a formal programming course. The focus is on the process of solving computational problems of interest to scientists and engineers, rather than on programming per se, which has several important implications for the contents of the text, as outlined later in the Preface. Fortran has long been favored as an introductory programming language for engineering and science students because of its historical roots and continued prominence in the professional practice of these disciplines. The Fortran 77 standard has been taught, within an essentially mainframe context, to an entire generation of scientists and engineers. However, many of the science and engineering calculations that, a generation ago, could be done only on mainframe computers can now be done on desktop computers, often using applications that don't require any programming at all.

JavaScript is widely used for simple online applications. This book presents HTML and JavaScript in a way that uniquely meets the needs of students in the sciences and engineering. It explains how to create simple client-side applications for scientific and engineering calculations. It includes many complete HTML/JavaScript examples with science/engineering applications to guide the reader progressively and comprehensively through the subject. This book is specifically targeted at a technical audience-- but not one that is necessarily familiar with a programming language,-- and gives the reader a sufficient understanding of HTML and JavaScript to write their own online applications. The exposition emphasises basic programming principles in a modern Web-oriented environment, making it also highly suitable for an introductory programming course for non-computer science majors. It is also ideal for self-study. There is supplementary website for this book containing code examples and all graphics files.

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it. —Benjamin Disraeli i. Background The purpose of this book is provide an introduction to using a server-side programming language to solve some kinds of computing problems that cannot be solved with a client-side language such as JavaScript. The language is PHP (originally created in 1994 by Danish/Icelandic programmer Rasmus Lerdorf as “Personal Home Page Tools” for dealing with his own web site). The PHP language does not have a formal specification, as C does, for example. It is developed and maintained by a User Group of volunteers and is, essentially, defined by the most recently available free download. Although this might seem to be a shaky foundation on which to make a commitment to learning a programming language, PHP has a very large world-wide base of users and applications, which ensures its role into the foreseeable future. This book should not be considered as a PHP reference source and it does not deal exhaustively even with those elements of the PHP language used in the book. (This should be considered a blessing by the casual programmer. ) If you need more information, there is a huge amount of information online about PHP. Hopefully, this book will help you filter this information to focus on solving typical science and engineering problems. An excellent online source for information about PHP is http://www. php. net/manual/en/index. php, maintained by the PHP 1 Documentation Group.

This concise and accessible textbook will enable readers to quickly develop the working skills necessary to solve computational problems in a server-based environment, using HTML and PHP. The importance of learning by example (as opposed to simply learning by copying) is emphasized through extensive use of hands-on exercises and examples, with a specific focus on useful science and engineering applications. The clearly-written text is designed to be simple to follow for the novice student, without requiring any background in programming or mathematics beyond algebra.Topics and features: describes the creation of HTML pages and the characteristics of HTML documents, showing how to use HTML tables, forms, lists, and frames to organize documents for use with PHP applications; explains how to set up a PHP environment, using a local or remote server; introduces the capabilities and syntax of the PHP language, including coverage of array syntax and use; examines user-defined functionsin programming, summarizing PHP functions for reading and writing files, viewing the content of variables, and manipulating strings; reviews the PHP GD graphics library, presenting applications for creating pie charts, bar graphs, and line graphs suitable for displaying scientific data; includes appendices listing HTML and ASCII special characters, and highlighting the essential basic strategies for solving computational problems.Supplying all of the tools necessary to begin coding in HTML and PHP, this invaluable textbook is ideal for undergraduate students taking introductory courses in programming. The book will also serve as a helpful self-study text for professionals in any technical field.

In 1998, my colleague, Forrest Mims, and I began a project to develop inexpensive handheld atmosphere monitoring instruments for the GLOBE Program, an international environmental science and education program that began its operations on Earth Day, 1995. GLOBE’s goal was to involve students, teachers, and scientists around the world in authentic partn- ships in which scientists would develop instrumentation and experimental protocols suitable for student use. In return, data collected by students and their teachers would be used by scientists in their research. This kind of collaboration represented a grand vision for science education which had never before been attempted on such a scale, and we embraced this vision with great enthusiasm. Between 1998 and 2006, Forrest Mims and I collaborated on the development of several instruments based on Mims’ original concept of using light emitting diodes as spectrally selective detectors of sunlight, which was first published in the peer-reviewed literature in 1992. These instruments have evolved into a set of tools and procedures for monitoring the transmission of sunlight through the atmosphere, and they can be used to learn a great deal about the composition of the atmosphere and the dynamics of the Earth/atmosphere/sun system. If measurements with these instruments are made properly, they have significant scientific value, as well.