RE: Knuth books and programming
by Abigail (Deacon) on Jul 15, 2000 at 13:33 UTC
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The Art of Computer Programming is a wonderful series. It
is the bible of algorithms design. And although it discusses
very basic algorithms, it's quite a high level book.
The Wolf book is not a good algorithms book. In the introduction,
the Wolf book says that many algorithm books use pseudo-code
and not a "real" language, claiming that that is a drawback
of those other books. Unfortunally, the Wolf book shows that
using pseudo-code is better idea.
If you are looking for a good general Algorithms book, go for
Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson and Ronald L. Rivest:
Introduction to Algorithms, Cambridge: MIT Press,
1990. ISBN 0-262-03141-8. And get yourself the hardcover.
My paperback is falling apart from years of heavy usuage.
-- Abigail | [reply] |
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Nice book. Another book worth of mention is Aho, Hopcroft, Ullman: Algorithms and data structures. Unfortunately I haven't its ISBN code here. I'll fix this node as soon as possible.
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Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0201000237; (January 1983), source Amazon.com
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(jcwren) RE: Knuth books and programming
by jcwren (Prior) on Jul 13, 2000 at 20:33 UTC
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Personally, I consider these books part of any essential library. The sorting algorithms and such are far from dated. I think you will find them well worth the investment. You may be able to find some at reduced prices (if you worry about such things) at any college bookstore that resells textbooks.
Most of what I've learned about sorting and such came from those books.
--Chris
e-mail jcwren | [reply] |
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Knuth books are some good books to use. You might also want to pick up some O'Reilly books if you're looking for specific languges ( Esp. Perl ). They've got a great section on Perl programming. I even got my Advanced Perl Programming book signed by Tim O'Reilly. As well as scoring about 5 free books from them...they're a good company.
The beatings will continue until morale raises.
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RE: Knuth books and programming
by ZZamboni (Curate) on Jul 13, 2000 at 23:17 UTC
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I recently got the boxed 3-volume set (gift from my wife), and I must
confess that I've been meaning to start reading them methodically,
but haven't. However, over the years I have consulted them for
different things.
IMO, Knuth's books are a must-have for anyone serious about
programming. But they are also in-depth treatment of the topics
and not "cookbooks". Go to them if you really want to understand
how things work and why they work the way they do. And be
prepared to do quite a bit of thinking yourself while reading
them.
If all you want is "how do I implement such-and-such algorithm
in language X", you probably don't want TAOCP (unless X eq "MIX" :-),
but one of the "Algorithms in X" books out there.
Also, if you are going to buy the books, make sure you get the
latest edition (third for books 1 and 2, second for book 3),
which has been nicely retypeset and updated.
--ZZamboni
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I haven't seen the older editions, but aren't they also
beautifully typeset? (I thought he wrote TeX so that
he could present things the way he wanted to in these
books.)
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Yes, that's the reason he started writing TeX. But I think the
older editions were not typeset with TeX yet. I have the
impression I read somewhere that he gave his original books,
together with all his corrections, for someone to typeset
in TeX for the new editions. I could be wrong.
--ZZamboni
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Re: Knuth books and programming
by Dominus (Parson) on Apr 19, 2001 at 21:44 UTC
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This may be heresy...
by Anonymous Monk on Jul 14, 2000 at 20:37 UTC
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But I haven't found the Knuth books to be as useful
day to day as I might have liked. They are a bit dated,
and I have little patience, or aptitude for mathematical
representations. I suspect this may be a failing on my part,
but I learn more studying running code than I do abstract
descriptions.
Professor Knuth's work casts a long shadow over what we do. I have never had the inclination to learn from the original, just as I have not yet acquired the desire to study my Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek. I am satisfied with the translations done by others. | [reply] |
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Says gaudior:
I
learn more studying running code than I do abstract descriptions. ing running code than I do abstract descriptions.
See, this is exactly what I mean when I say that people
don't like it because it's too concrete.
Criticizing The Art of Computer Programming
for not having "running code" is the most unfair thing you can do.
Almost every page has running code, or detailed analysis of
the running code that appeared nearby.
Why doesn't gaudior recognize this? Because the running
code is in assembly language, and is full of fussy
details about word size and I/O interrupts and
memory allocation.
Most people I know who didn't like The Art of Computer
Programming have not actually bothered to read the code;
then they complain that it is too abstract.
--
Mark Dominus
Perl Paraphernalia
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Oops, I had not intended to post anonymously. I didn't realize I was not logged in.
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