ntended to be a gentle introduction to how we specify algorithms, some of the design strategies we will use throughout this book, and many of the fundamental ideas used in algorithm analysis. Later parts of this book will build upon this base. Chapter 1 provides an overview of algorithms and their place in modern com- puting systems. This chapter defines what an algorithm is and lists some examples. It also makes a case that we should consider algorithms as a technology, along- side technologies such as fast hardware, graphical user interfaces, object-oriented systems, and networks. In Chapter 2, we see our first algorith