* Employs proven conception of teaching topics in commutative algebra through a focus on their applications to algebraic geometry, a significant departure from other works on plane algebraic curves in which the topological-analytic aspects are stressed
*Requires only a basic knowledge of algebra, with all necessary algebraic facts collected into several appendices
* Studies algebraic curves over an algebraically closed field K and those of prime characteristic, which can be applied to coding theory and cryptography
* Covers filtered algebras, the associated graded rings and Rees rings to deduce basic facts about intersection theory of plane curves, applications of which are standard tools of computer algebra
* Examples, exercises, figures and suggestions for further study round out this fairly self-contained textbook