Quick Calculus: A Self-Teaching Guide, 2nd Edition
by DanielKleppner, NormanRamsey
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (28 October, 1985)
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Reviews (7)

Quick Calculus
This book is great for reviewing fundamentals before you get to the hard stuff. IT explains this in an easy maner in several different ways. I recommend it.

Great book to offer a good working knowledge quickly

I picked up this book as a supplement for getting a better understanding of the math for a computer algorithms analysis course. The course relys heavily on an understanding of calculus to analyze growth rates of functions and function derivitives but it didn't go into a lot of depth of why the math works giving derivations, etc. It mostly assumed that the reader had already been exposed to calculus and was only offering a refresher. I've already read through half of the book and while there are some errors in the text, there isn't anything that can't be reconciled.

The book uses programmed learning so you can systematically skip in depth explainations of practice problems if you don't need them. The two main branches of calculus are covered: differential and integral. The material is initially introducedinformally and uses graphical explanations (when possible) that really help the material sink in faster. After the main themes areexplained, the material is formally defined and offers derivations in the appendices for those who are interested in them. I've found this method helps to distill the purpose of the calculus from the complexity of the equations and terminology.

There is a refresher for graphing linear equations, essential trigonometry, and exponentials/logarithms. The material is given adequate explaination in order "make the jump" to the key concepts of calculus. I've found the text easy to read both in terms of the author's teaching style as well as having crisp text with a large font. A full chapter, designed as an in depth review of both branches of calculus, is included to solidify your understanding of the material as well as offer a context of applying calculus to real world problems. The appendix also has an introduction on some advanced topics of calculus (that I havn't gotten to yet). A caveat is that when you start to work out the practice problems, if you are rusty with algebra you'll probably need a reference for reviewing the basics of factoring, racicals, and manipulating negative/fractional exponents, etc. The algebra is a little light in this respect when equations are solved step by step. The book assumes you have a good working knowledge of algebra and solving/manipulating equations. I found myself having to quickly review how to manipulate radicals and review the eponentation rules.

All in all I am extremely pleased with the text. It's very concise, well thought-out, with an incremental learning slope that is not too steep, offers meaningful exercises that reinforce an understanding of the material, and uncovers the mystique of calculus with intuitive explainations and repetition of key concepts (in key places) to help you retain the material faster.

Great
This is a great book to either learn or relearn Calculus. As for the errors they're some, but done that are significant ... Read more

Isbn: 0471827223
Sales Rank: 102647
Subjects:  1. Calculus    2. General    3. Mathematical Analysis    4. Mathematics    5. Programmed instruction    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Study Guides    8. Calculus & mathematical analysis    9. Mathematics / Calculus   

Matrices and Transformations
by Anthony J Pettofrezzo
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1978)
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Reviews (1)

Good Introduction to Matrices.Great Price.
This fairly short Dover re-print edition is a good self-tutorial for students new to matrices.This book was originally published several years ago. but the mathematical notation is consistent with current texts.Thefirst two chapters are moderately paced, covering such topics as real andcomplex matrices, Hermitian matrices, the inverse and rank of a matrix, anda brief introduction to systems of linear equations. The third chapter is abit unique in focusing on application of matrices to transformations of theplane. I have encountered this topic in bits and pieces in various textsand I found this overview both interesting and helpful.

The finalchapter, titled Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, was a bit too concise,touching too briefly on more complicated topics like diagonalization ofmatrices, Hamilton-Cayley Theorem, and quadratic forms. I recommend workingthrough the fourth chapter (this is a short book) rather quickly to get abasic understanding, but then moving to more detailed treatments ofeigenvalues and related topics elsewhwere. As a follow-up, I recommendanother Dover edition - An Introduction to Matrices, Sets, ad Groups forScience Students.However, this text assumes substantial familiarity withmanipulation of determinants.

All in all, this book is a good buy and agood starting point for studying matrices. ... Read more

Isbn: 0486636348
Sales Rank: 427442
Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Mathematics    3. Matrices    4. Transformations (Mathematics)   

Calculus With Analytic Geometry
by George F Simmons
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 October, 1995)
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Reviews (19)

solid calc book
This book is perfect if you are looking for a book that has a nice balance between theory and application.Theory is presented on an as-needed basis and there is more in the appendix if the reader is so inclined.This was an excellent book for me my freshman year and it has been a good reference for me throughout my math career.It is a nice stepping stone on the way to spivak.

Not Helpful in the Least
Another MIT student here... unfortunately not all calc. classes at MIT has stopped using this book. As a result the majority of our class is hopelessly lost... and this is at MIT!!!... now that's a testament to how bad the book is... Things aren't explained well, the examples have nothing to do with the actual problems, and without the "space wasting" graphics that so many other books have it's difficult to visualize what Simmons is talking about, and despite popular opinion visualizing what you are doing is very important to calculus. I'm relying on my HS calc book to get me through the course.

Best! ~ Best! ~ Best!
It definitly helps one who want to master Calculus or join the Calculus competiton of any kinds.

It better than "Calculus With Analytic Geometry, Seventh Edition" for it give you some useful appendixs and very simplify than it. It does not includ differential equation for as the author said that it is not useful when there is a full course on differential equation!!! ... Read more

Isbn: 0070576424
Sales Rank: 56930
Subjects:  1. Analytical Geometry    2. Calculus    3. Geometry - Analytic    4. Geometry, Analytic    5. Mathematical Analysis    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Mathematics / Calculus   

Introduction to Linear Algebra, Second Edition
by Gilbert Strang
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 June, 1993)
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Reviews (21)

A great book for self-study
I used the book for self-study in combination with Strang's freely available video lectures. The book's emphasis is on understanding and appreciating concepts, rather than on formal proofs. As I have experienced him, Strang is very good at explaining things. He uses lots of examples, and, the textbook as well as the video lectures are very easy to comprehend. His informal writing helps to make the book an interesting read. For me, having had some linear algebra in high school, most ideas were familiar. However, it was always delightful for me to look at Strang's perspective on things. One clearly sees that Strang has a lot of experience in teaching linear algebra. He introduces new ideas in a very natural way, emphasizing what they are good for beforehand. I particularly liked the chapter on determinants.

The book doesn't require any prior knowledge besides very basic high school math. I used it in my year of civilian national service, before starting to go to college. Compared to other college level books for math majors I have looked at, this book works great for self-study. The level of difficulty seems to be something inbetween high school and university level (math major).

Borrowed 4 times from library; time to buy.
This engineer is interested in the insight that maths can provide, not the proofs that can be written. This book aims for insight.

If you want to put the students to sleep, if you don't want your class to see past the proof then this is not the book for you.

Teach the subject to the non-math students
Gilbert Strang is a very experienced teacher of Linear Algebra, and this book is written as a text based on his MIT linear algebra class. Math majors will not find the 'definition-proposition-lemma-theorem-proof-corollary' treatment here. Instead Strang, aware of the need to teach non-math majors the subject, explains linear algebra in a simple but effective way --examples, diagrams, motivations. This book is one of those with which you can skip class the whole semester and get good grades (but don't do it! get your education in the classroom). ... Read more

Isbn: 0961408855
Sales Rank: 238687
Subjects:  1. Algebra - Linear    2. Algebras, Linear    3. Linear Algebra    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics   

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)
by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (25 July, 1996)
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Editorial Review

Abelson and Sussman's classic Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs teaches readers how to program by employing the tools of abstraction and modularity. The authors' central philosophy is that programming is the task of breaking large problems into small ones. The book spends a great deal of time considering both this decomposition and the process of knitting the smaller pieces back together.

The authors employ this philosophy in their writing technique. The text asks the broad question "What is programming?" Having come to the conclusion that programming consists of procedures and data, the authors set off to explore the related questions of "What is data?" and "What is a procedure?"

The authors build up the simple notion of a procedure to dizzying complexity. The discussion culminates in the description of the code behind the programming language Scheme. The authors finish with examples of how to implement some of the book's concepts on a register machine. Through this journey, the reader not only learns how to program, but also how to think about programming. ... Read more

Reviews (140)

A Classics Indeed
SICP takes you to the heart of Computer Science.It teaches you to be a computer scientist, not a programmer.

Being a Berkeley graduate having taken the 61A course with A+ (couldn't believe!), I can only say that this is a book that you read in your spare time, not when your have a project due in two weeks (or a final tomorrow).It is more philosophical than practical, and is for the aspiring computer scientists rather than those who need to get out there to make some money and buy stocks.

And it is quite advanced in theory for an introductory text.Beginners are better off with books that approach these ideas from a practical programming perspective.

Fantastic Book.
This is a fantastic book. I agree with the reviewers that say this book as little to do with contemporary software design and practice, and that's a shame, because if this book HAD more influence on contemporary software design, programs would work much, much better.

This is a book about writing software, controlling complexity, identifying abstractions. It is filled with intelligence and wisdom. It is also a lot of fun.

The Pons Asinorum of programming
Barry Mazur (talking about mathematics, not programming) once characterised the encounter with a genuinely new concept in terms of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's experience on reading the first lines of Metamorphosis, when he literally fell off the sofa in shock, thinking 'I didn't know you were allowed to do that'.
I still remember the same shock, even if I didn't literally fall of my chair, when, as an undergraduate, I encountered the first edition of this on the new acquisitions rack in my departmental library: I must have been the first person in the University, in Northern Ireland even, to read it, which I did, from cover to cover, over several days sitting in the library, even before it was released into the stacks.

The reason why Structure and Interpretation is the best there is, is that it manages, not just once, but several times, to deliver that fall-off-a-chair intellectual jolt. People who complain that you can only do such things in Scheme, and therefore that the ideas are pointless, are missing the point. ... Read more

Isbn: 0262011530
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computer Science    4. Computer programming    5. Computers    6. LISP (Computer program languag    7. LISP (Computer program language)    8. Lisp (Programming Language)    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Programming Languages - LISP    12. Computers / Computer Science   

Simply Scheme - 2nd Edition: Introducing Computer Science
by Brian Harvey, Matthew Wright
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (27 August, 1999)
list price: $70.00 -- our price: $59.96
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Editorial Review

For anyone learning the Scheme programming language, the second edition of Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science provides a very digestible textbook-style introductory tutorial to this powerful and elegant language.

In the words of the authors, Simply Scheme is designed to be a "prequel" to another book, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. This latter title has been a staple of introductory computer science courses for years, but it assumes a certain background.

Simply Scheme works hard to make the somewhat tricky ideas of Scheme accessible. This tutorial stresses small sections on key language features, from basic functions, variables, and onward to recursion and other functional programming concepts. While languages like C++ and Java use objects to model data, Scheme programmers break a problem down into functions. The art--and elegance--of problem solving in Scheme comes from applying recursion and other design concepts.

Longer code samples in the book include a tic-tac-toe game, examples that work with poker and bridge, and a working spreadsheet demo. Throughout, the book employs a friendly and jargon-free approach to programming. This book is as much about thinking like Scheme as it is about the basic nuts and bolts of the language. Sections on using software patterns in Scheme help bring this new edition up to date.

Though not often used in business, Scheme and its cousin Common Lisp (which the book describes in an appendix) are still favored by computer scientists, for example, in artificial intelligence research. Simple Scheme succeeds in making a difficult programming language both approachable and accessible. It's a valuable resource to any computer science student who is taking Scheme on for the first time. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Scheme language fundamentals, functions and higher-order functions, variables, lambda basics, recursion, abstraction, software patterns in Scheme, lists, trees, sequential programming, working with files, vectors, Common Lisp. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Weak
The extra star is for the excessive effort these guys had to put in for what they did. It was not very effective. The biggest problem of this book is that it's full of confusing explanations the designers hoped would be "heuristic." This problem permeates the work from start to finish. The use of the special commands by the authors, not part of standard scheme, makes very little sense in most classroom settings that teach Scheme in the hopes of teaching functional programming. The whole idea of functional programming is that you have a bare group of essential concepts AND commands, and work your way from there. I had the great misfortune of taking a class where we weren't allowed to use the specially designed scheme commands for this book, but still had to buy it. If you are in that predicament, the book is completely worthless. Furthermore, while I admire the author's desire to prepare people for SICP, their treatment of this task borders on arrogance. At one point they actually suggest that "SICP was designed for MIT students" and that the rest of us aren't worthy of it yet. Quite frankly for anybody willing to take the time, SICP is not as terrifying as these guys make it out to be. This is a weak book.

An interesting read
Scheme itself is a terse declarative programming language with few (more likely zero) industrial uses. However the important and fundamental concepts in computer science are well demonstrated by the authors here. The book does serve fairly well as preparation for SICP but if that is the books purpose then the authors may as use raw mathematical predicates which is alot easier to read than Scheme code. The library code provided by the authors is vital for doing the exercises and coding

without these is not considered making the book a weak reference manual. The book is also too long for a single semester course which means you may as well undertake Knuth's volumes if you are in a long course.

Simpy Scheme
I read this book in preparation for a computer science cource (taught byone of it's authors). I chose the book because the course was taught inScheme, and I had not encountered the language before. I must say that thisis an excellent book. While it may use some non-standard extensions to thelanguage, in general, it does a good job of teaching Scheme. I feel thatafter I read the book, I was thorougly prepared to read SICP, the main textin my comp sci course. The non-technical and sometimes humorous style madeSimply Scheme an easy reading, and allowed me to concentrate on theconcepts rather than the jargon. ... Read more

Isbn: 0262082810
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computer science    5. Computers    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Reference - General    8. Scheme (Computer program langu    9. Scheme (Computer program language)    10. Computers / Programming Languages / General   

Discrete Mathematics and its Applications
by Kenneth H. Rosen, Wcb, McGraw-Hill
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (11 December, 1998)
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Reviews (69)

Just plain confusing...
This book is pretty useless when it comes to explaining concepts that it attempts to teach. It skips steps and fails to explain how to solve a lot of problems. I usually have to have a math tutor, or the teacher explain the lessons to me, because the 15-page sectionsin the book seem to get me nowhere. I wouldn't have a problem with discrete math if we had a different textbook.

Reasonably good text, very poor student/instructor guides.
The text itself is brief, but still a good overview of discrete mathematics.The main problem is the student and instructor guides.The answers frequently have errors and problems are not reiterated in the text, so a student or a grader has to flip back and forth between at least two books to make sense of the solutions.Even more frustrating for students is the fact that some problems do not have good answers: the author admits that he cannot solve the problem and refers to answers from other problems instead.This is simply not fair to students who may be struggling with the material.

As a teaching assistant, it is not up to me to select the text books.If it were, I would look for a replacement.

Horrid, Painful, and Savage
This is perhaps the worst book possible for a math class as difficult as this one.The examples assume you know a lot about Discrete Math so the author leaves out required information that you have to deduce. It should be titled "Discrete Math II: Buy The Book, Give Me Your Money, Foreward My Career." He has made mathematics painfully difficult.The solutions manual increases what the textbook has in the answer section by about 5%. All in all, it leaves you with more questions and more confusion. And then this jerk hits you with a ridiculously high price tag. This guy is a criminal, his bowls should be cut out and burned and then fed to him. ... Read more

Isbn: 0072899050
Sales Rank: 215149
Subjects:  1. Computer Science    2. Discrete Mathematics    3. Discrete Mathematics (Computer Science)    4. General    5. Mathematics    6. Mathematics (General)    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Applied mathematics   

Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science (2nd Edition)
by Ronald L. Graham, Donald E. Knuth, Oren Patashnik
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (28 February, 1994)
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Reviews (24)

A pourry of combinatorics
I want to start saying that this is a book designed for Engineers, not for Mathematicians. It focuses on the tecniques, not on the arguments. This is not a book about combinatorics, it is a wide raging introduction (it lacks on definitions, and his proofs are a lot far away from mathematical ones). The Enegineers can use this book as a good reference. The Mathematicians can improve their lateral thinking, for them (well: us) it is book about problem-solving strategies.
I will never use this book as a textbook for a graduate/undergraduate course, it can be helpful if used with another book about combinatorics: when you study a combinatorial object, you can read from this book the techniques it involves.
The exercises are extremely exciting, when I read this book I spent a lot of time about its exercises (proportion read:solve = 1:3), and they led me to interesting results.

Steep learning curve, the definitive prerequisite for TAOCP.
Why I got this book:
It's a great feeling to know how computers work, when I decided that I want to make a career and a life out of computers, as its truly a passion for me, I delved deeper, discovering the true beauty in the Science part of Computer Science, so I decided to get Donald Knuth' "The Art of Computer Programming" - to describe that seminal, huge work, it's like biting more than you can chew while trying to drink from a fire hose, moreover, the technical and mathematical prerequisites for the work are sometimes too demanding, they require a huge amount of experience with discrete mathematics, although I had some lectures and read some books, none came close "Concrete Mathematics", it covers, from ground up (though with a dangerously steep learning curve) a lot of discrete mathematics topics, it is by far the most extensive work I've read about Sums and really teaches the algorithmic problem solving thinking skill the authors preach so much about, with small amusing comments written by actual students of this course, a comfortable format, and very good writing skills, you can feel these guys are great professors who enjoy this material and are passionate about teaching it.

Recommended, though some better, less steep, introductionary text books are probably out there.

Enjoy.

Only one problem with this textbook
Basically, I like this textbook. The material is interesting, the way the authors presented the material is inspiring, and they provided a lot of jokes to make even studying for exams not that boring. But there is one big problem which made me decided to rate this book only 3 stars instead of 5 stars: the authors like to use non-standard notations. For example: m\n means "m>0 and n=mk for some integer k". One of the worst thing in scientific world is writing things others cannot read, and the authors did this by introducing many strange notations. These things makes the good work sometimes almost unreadable. This is not computer systems in which we use "cp" for the copy command and "cd" for change directory command.

What a pity the authors did that. This textbook will be perfect without those strange notations.... ... Read more

Isbn: 0201558025
Sales Rank: 46706
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Science    3. General    4. Mathematics    5. Programming Languages - General   

Computer Organization and Design Second Edition : The Hardware/Software Interface
by David A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 August, 1997)
list price: $89.95 -- our price: $89.95
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Editorial Review

This textbook provides a basic introduction to the fundamentals of current computer designs. As the title suggests, the text skirts the border between hardware and software. After an overview of the subject and a discussion of performance, the book launches into technical matter such as instruction sets, how they are constrained by the underlying processor hardware, the constraints on their design, and more. An excellent critique of computer arithmetic methods leads to a high-level discussion on processor design. Following is a great introduction to pipelining, nice coverage of memory issues, and solid attention to peripherals. The book concludes with a brief discussion of the additional issues inherent in multiprocessing machines. The extremely lucid description is grounded in real-world examples. Interesting exercises help reinforce the material, and each section contains a write-up of the historical background of each idea. Computer Organization and Design is accessible to the beginner, but also offers plenty of valuable knowledge for experienced engineers. ... Read more

Reviews (48)

Verbose, boring, disorganized and skips important concepts.
This book starts off nicely and explains some of the basics of assembly programming (empasis on MIPS). Some of the arithematic stuff is a little out of its place and the authors skip important concepts (which I had to learn online). It has a fairly decent introduction to MIPS architecture. But right after the first few chapters - starting from caches, virtual memory and I/O this books starts to get really really disorganized and confusing. The chapter or caches and virtual memory will bore you and you'll end up spending 3-4 hours reading and giving yourself a big headache. I think topics like caches and vm need more diagrams for better understanding. Since lot of stuff happens in parallel in caches and vm's, its actually hard to understand what the authors are trying to convey from those chapters. I totally skipped those topics and studied them from elsewhere. I wouldn't want to recommend this book for students intending to go for into to computer architecture, but since this is the only book which covers all the topics, we don't have a much of a choice.

One of the better texts on hardware
If you have to use this book in a college course and you are not directed to do so, download the SPIM simulator (MIPS spelled backwards) the author mentions in the book. This can help you understand some of the more complex topics.

The reason I gave the book four stars is because the topic of pipelining as introduced in the book is confusing and may require most readers to go back over the topic several times before it clicks.

I also think that having a course in digital fundamentals prior to taking a course that requires this book would help, too. It used to be that colleges would require undergrad computer science students to take a digital fundamentals course (or equivalent) before taking and organization class. It seems now that many schools have dropped the digital requirement and have students take one computer organization class. If you fit in this boat, maybe thing about picking up a Schaum's outline on digital design concepts to go along with this book.

Very boring and tedious to read!!
This book has a good potential in teaching students about computer organization. Unfortunately, the authors spend too much time explaining simple concepts which makes the book very boring and tedious to read. For example: the authors spend 335 pages just to explain basic MIPS assembly languages and computer performance. Those concepts could have been explained in 50 pages at most. Giving too much unnecessary detail won't help me to get a better understanding of computer organization. In fact, I get lost because the main topic was buried inside all the unimportant unnecessary details. This book could have been written in 300 pages, which is about a third of the length of the book, and still gives a clear, to the point, concise explanation of computer organization. ... Read more

Isbn: 1558604286
Subjects:  1. Computer Architecture    2. Computer Architecture - General    3. Computer Bks - General Information    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Design    6. Computer Engineering    7. Computer interfaces    8. Computer organization    9. Computers    10. Reference - General    11. Computers / Computer Architecture   

Core Java 2, Volume 1: Fundamentals (5th Edition)
by Cay S. Horstmann, Gary Cornell
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (18 December, 2000)
list price: $44.99
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Reviews (36)

Excellent
This is an excellent book that provides plenty of depth while being extremely readable.This book is designed for people with some programming experience.If you have no programming experience than the book may be a little challenging.The swing and graphics chapters are particuarly good.Overall a great book that shows you how to do a lot of useful things with Java.Also recommended: Volume II which discusses more advanced features.

For serious developers -- Not a recipe book
I bought this book while in college as a supplement to my course textbook and years later while working in the industry I find it an invaluable reference.

Highly recommend!

There is a NEW EDITION
This is a great book but there is a new edition.Go to ISBN number 0130471771. ... Read more

Isbn: 0130894680
Sales Rank: 196049
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Networks    4. Computer Programming Languages    5. Computers    6. Java (Computer language)    7. Java (Computer program languag    8. Java (Computer program language)    9. Programming Languages - Java    10. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Core Java 2, Volume II: Advanced Features (5th Edition)
by Cay Horstmann, Gary Cornell
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (10 December, 2001)
list price: $49.99
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Editorial Review

The fifth edition of Core Java 2: Volume II--Advanced Features brings a classic Java text up to date for developers tackling JDK 1.3 and 1.4, with a fast-moving and example-based tutorial. Perfect for those who want to learn programming through small, complete demos, this new version is still an excellent choice for mastering the more advanced topics in Java.

The salient feature of this tutorial is that authors provide small, complete programs that demonstrate each area of functionality in "core" Java along with reference material on essential APIs. Beginning with using multiple threading (and synchronization, which allow threads to communicate), the authors provide an engaging tour of advanced Java. The focus here is on client-side Java based on the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE), both versions 1.3 and 1.4, including APIs for building applets and applications with Swing and JavaBeans. As in the previous edition, sections on the Java collections do little to simplify the complexity here. Coverage of JDBC is very good, though, with a fine mix of examples showing off basic SQL and queries, plus transactions and newer JDBC features. Later on, this text turns to Swing, including how to extend three powerful Swing controls (lists, trees, and tables), plus improved J2SE 1.4 support for progress controls, plus drag-and-drop and clipboard support.

Besides providing source code and APIs, this book is filled with tips and gotchas to avoid. A robust section on security covers the entire spectrum of security issues in Java, including signing JAR files (along with good practical details). Though it's probably rare enough today, the authors go into good detail about creating custom JavaBean components. Examples make use of Sun Forte Community Edition, a capable Java tool (bundled on the accompanyingCD-ROM).

Standout later chapters include an excellent tour of Java's strong support for internationalization (illustrated with a "retirement saving calculator" in English, German, and Chinese). A final section on XML introduces this powerful new standard, plus some essential Java APIs for getting starting with parsing and transforming XML. Chock-full of examples and useful advice, the latest edition of Core Java2--Volume II is a worthy update to an already successful Java tutorial. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Programming with multiple threads (states and priorities, daemon threads); thread synchronization; avoiding deadlocks; using threads with Swing (dos and don'ts); introduction to collections (including lists, sets, trees, and maps); the collections framework; algorithms (sorting and searching); legacy collections; Java network programming (sending e-mail, using sockets and URLs, basic Web programming); JDBC and databases (quick SQL tutorial, connecting and querying data, metadata, and transactions); new JDBC 3.0 features; remote method invocation (RMI); Java and CORBA; advanced Swing tutorial (JList, JTree, and JTable, including custom rendering options); advanced AWT and Java 2-D graphics (including image manipulation and graphics filters); clipboard and drag-and-drop support; JavaBeans (properties and events, property editors and customizers); Java security (class loaders and bytecode verification, digital signatures, signing JAR files, encryption); internationalization (including date and time and multiple character sets); the Java Native Interface (JNI); Java and C interoperability; and a quick tutorial to XML (SAX and XSL in Java). ... Read more

Reviews (30)

Excellent
This a great overview of several of the advanced features of Java.Although it does not go into tremendous depth on any one topic, it provides you with enough information to write some real and useful programs.Overall a great introduction to multithreading, networking, JDBC, and advanced Swing/AWT.Highly recommended.Useful as a desktop reference and a platform to get started working with advanced Java features.

Useless to the professional ones.
Even though this is a more than one thousand pages' book its chapters are actually only intoductions to very important topics: multithreading, collections, networking, database connection via JDBC, AWT, swing, security and internationalisation. It is worth the cost ? It depends: if you are an absolute beginner, as I was, you will not regret to have spent your money.
But if you are an experienced Java programmer who works on projects of the real world you will probably look elsewhwere. For instance: if you are involved in making sophisticated Graphic User Interfaces (GUI), notwithstanding the book devotes nearly one third of its pages to Advanced AWT and Swing, it is better to switch directly to the far more comprehensive five 'Graphic Java 2' volumes of one thousand pages each by David Geary. Or if you are working in an enterprise three layer client-server project interacting with a DBMS, the informations you find in the respective chapter are simply commonplace; books (not a single one) on servlets, JDBC and Enterprise Java Bean will be more useful.
Have the authors miss the target ? No, so wide is the Java world that it is impossible to enclose everything in one or two books.

Used for an Advanced CS course - it's Great!
I use this book (and its Volume I) for a course I teach at the University of Delaware.It's wonderul.It's definatly written with the experienced programmer with lots of experience but none in Java in mind.You can really pick Java up quickly with this book and it makes a good reference material as well.If you already know how to program and want to learn Java and experience the powerful features of the language and the APIs and class libraries that come with the Java 2 SDK, then this is the book for you. ... Read more

Isbn: 0130927384
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Networks    4. Computer Programming Languages    5. Computers    6. Java (Computer language)    7. Java (Computer program languag    8. Java (Computer program language)    9. Programming Languages - Java    10. Computers / Programming Languages / Java   

Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition
by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 September, 2001)
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Editorial Review

Aimed at any serious programmer or computer science student,the new second edition of Introduction to Algorithms builds onthe tradition of the original with a truly magisterial guide to theworld of algorithms. Clearly presented, mathematically rigorous, andyet approachable even for the math-averse, this title sets a highstandard for a textbook and reference to the best algorithms forsolving a wide range of computing problems.

With sample problems andmathematical proofs demonstrating the correctness of each algorithm,this book is ideal as a textbook for classroom study, but its reachdoesn't end there. The authors do a fine job of explaining eachalgorithm. (Reference sections on basic mathematical notation will helpreaders bridge the gap, but it will help to have some math backgroundto appreciate the full achievement of this handsome hardcover volume.)Every algorithm is presented in pseudo-code, which can be implementedin any computer language, including C/C++ and Java. This ecumenicalapproach is one of the book's strengths. When it comes to sorting andcommon data structures, from basic linked lists to trees (includingbinary trees, red-black, and B-trees), this title really shines, withclear diagrams that show algorithms in operation. Even if you justglance over the mathematical notation here, you can definitely benefitfrom this text in other ways.

The book moves forward with moreadvanced algorithms that implement strategies for solving morecomplicated problems (including dynamic programming techniques, greedyalgorithms, and amortized analysis). Algorithms for graphing problems(used in such real-world business problems as optimizing flightschedules or flow through pipelines) come next. In each case, theauthors provide the best from current research in each topic, alongwith sample solutions.

This text closes with a grab bag of usefulalgorithms including matrix operations and linear programming,evaluating polynomials, and the well-known Fast Fourier Transformation(FFT) (useful in signal processing and engineering). Final sections on"NP-complete" problems, like the well-known traveling salesman problem,show off that while not all problems have a demonstrably final and bestanswer, algorithms that generate acceptable approximate solutions canstill be used to generate useful, real-world answers.

Throughout thistext, the authors anchor their discussion of algorithms with currentexamples drawn from molecular biology (like the Human Genome Project),business, and engineering. Each section ends with short discussions ofrelated historical material, often discussing original research in eacharea of algorithms. On the whole, they argue successfully thatalgorithms are a "technology" just like hardware and software that canbe used to write better software that does more, with betterperformance. Along with classic books on algorithms (like DonaldKnuth's three-volume set, The Art of ComputerProgramming), this title sets a new standard for compiling thebest research in algorithms. For any experienced developer, regardlessof their chosen language, this text deserves a close look for extendingthe range and performance of real-world software. --RichardDragan

Topics covered: Overview of algorithms (including algorithms asa technology); designing and analyzing algorithms; asymptotic notation;recurrences and recursion; probabilistic analysis and randomizedalgorithms; heapsort algorithms; priority queues; quicksort algorithms;linear time sorting (including radix and bucket sort); medians andorder statistics (including minimum and maximum); introduction to datastructures (stacks, queues, linked lists, and rooted trees); hashtables (including hash functions); binary search trees; red-blacktrees; augmenting data structures for custom applications; dynamicprogramming explained (including assembly-line scheduling, matrix-chainmultiplication, and optimal binary search trees); greedy algorithms(including Huffman codes and task-scheduling problems); amortizedanalysis (the accounting and potential methods); advanced datastructures (including B-trees, binomial and Fibonacci heaps,representing disjoint sets in data structures); graph algorithms(representing graphs, minimum spanning trees, single-source shortestpaths, all-pairs shortest paths, and maximum flow algorithms); sortingnetworks; matrix operations; linear programming (standard and slackforms); polynomials and the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT); numbertheoretic algorithms (including greatest common divisor, modulararithmetic, the Chinese remainder theorem, RSA public-key encryption,primality testing, integer factorization); string matching;computational geometry (including finding the convex hull);NP-completeness (including sample real-world NP-complete problems andtheir insolvability); approximation algorithms for NP-complete problems(including the traveling salesman problem); reference sections forsummations and other mathematical notation, sets, relations, functions,graphs and trees, as well as counting and probability backgrounder(plus geometric and binomial distributions). ... Read more

Reviews (122)

Too much coverage and few examples
I am a MS student, we used this book as Text Guide. Thank God I pass although I just got a B in part due to the poor coverage of exercises of this book. Despite of my willingness to try the examples and exercises it was really frustating not be able to check any of my answers.
First of all the book tries to cover all the possible topics related to Algorithms from sortingto NP-completeness problems. My recommendation, focus on what you know well and cover it thouroughly or at least split this book in 2 volumes.
Second, the anoying way to explain things by leaving them as exercises.
Third, the exercises were not in any way helpful to reinforce the material covered in the chapter, on the contrary are just the introduction of new concepts; and on top of that no answers available. In some cases the answers are not even related to the chapter you are reviewing, just an example, the solution for some of the problems in NP chapter are the application of Dynamic Programming which is a different chapter in the book.

If you have the unfortune of using this book, search on the net for answers that may guide you on your homework assignments.

Best of the luck.

Comprehensive and (almost) complete.
I am an EE PhD student in Princeton, with basic CS background. I bought this book about a week ago, and I just finished reading more than half of it. I am impressed by the organisation and dedication of the authors to write something understandable to a wide audience, without sacrificing in depth analysis. If you need a good and complete introductory book,that summarizes also the latest research in the field, I would recommend this one.

Drawbacks...Minor (+ I am a weird guy) and hardly mentionable, but I have the feeling that some proofs may have been presented more rigorously. I would also like to see more examples or SOLUTIONS to some of the problems.

Lots of stuff, but a little verbose
A good introductory text but that's about it. Any CS major worth his salt should chew his way through this level material pretty quickly, and there's the only rub... at points this could be a little bit more concise because it actually can aid understanding in an exact field. Sometimes less is more. The spared pages could be used to cover more material or to raise the bar a little. ... Read more

Isbn: 0262032937
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computer Science    4. Computer algorithms    5. Computer programming    6. Computers    7. Programming - Algorithms    8. Computers / Computer Science   

Computers and Intractability : A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness (Series of Books in the Mathematical Sciences)
by M. R. Garey, D. S. Johnson
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 January, 1979)
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Editorial Review

This book's introduction features a humorous story of a man with a line of people behind him, who explains to his boss, "I can't find an efficient algorithm, but neither can all these famous people." This man illustrates an important quality of a class of problems, namely, the NP-complete problems: if you can prove that a problem is in this class, then it has no known polynomial-time solution that is guaranteed to work in general. This quality implies that the problem is difficult to deal with in practice.

The focus of this book is to teach the reader how to identify, deal with, and understand the essence of NP-complete problems; Computers and Intractability does all of those things effectively. In a readable yet mathematically rigorous manner, the book covers topics such as how to prove that a given problem is NP-complete and how to cope with NP-complete problems. (There is even a chapter on advanced topics, with numerous references.) Computers and Intractability also contains a list of more than 300 problems--most of which are known to be NP-complete--with comments and references. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

The most readable math book ever
I first read this book while researching heuristic techniques for reaching "good enough" solutions to the Travelling Salesman problem. "Computers and Intractability" was a breath of fresh air. It was as rigorous as any mathematical treatise, but written in a way that even a non-math major could understand. If you ever want to know why computers are so buggy, you'll know the mathematical reason for this within the first few pages of this book. By the time you reach the end, you'll never trust cryptography to absolutely, without a doubt, keep data secure for long, if at all.

Showing its age
Yes, it's a classic.Yes, every computer scientist MUST own it.But enormous significant progress has been made in the field of NP-completeness (and computational complexity more generally) in the two decades since this book was published.An up-to-date edition -- which would probably be well over a thousand pages long -- has been badly needed for years.

A classic!
I think every computer science student shouldread some of this book tolearn about complexity theory and the notions reducibilty and completeness.Moreover, you may come across a problem that you have to show is NP or Pcomplete, and the examples in thebook provide a good model for doing so.Papadimitriou's book on complexity is also a great place to learn moreabout the subject. ... Read more

Isbn: 0716710455
Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Computational complexity    3. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    4. Computer Science    5. Computer algorithms    6. Computer programming    7. Programming - General    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Mathematics / General   

Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design (3rd Edition)
by George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Tim Kindberg
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (11 August, 2000)
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Reviews (4)

A very good book for distributed systems.
As the awareness of resource sharing and cooperation has increased, distributed systems have gained unprecedented attention. However, designing a practical distributed application is a demanding and complicated task. Coulouris et al. have excellently addressed this design issue with Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design. This book covers various topics from fundamental concepts and principles of distributed systems to some advanced topics, such as replication and distributed multimedia systems. For each topic, the authors provide information in sufficient depth and breadth for readers to conduct further research.

The strength of the book lies in efficiently using practical examples to explain the underlying principles of distributed systems. Helpful case studies are placed throughout the book. Another characteristic of the book is its successful and extensive use of comparison and contrast to make concepts clear.

The book has eighteen chapters and each chapter is well-organized, starting with an introduction and ending with a summary. Although the authors indicate that the book is organized into five main topic areas, the actual organization is not so intuitive and consistent with those topic areas. For example, Chapter 5, 7, and 9 discuss middleware of distributed systems, but Chapter 6 and 8 talk about system infrastructure. So I think it may be better to pick and choose each topic area, instead of following the actual organization of the book.

The first four chapters of the book offer the prerequisite knowledge and fundamental concepts of distributed systems.The authors introduce the characterization of distributed systems (Chapter 1), system models of distributed systems (Chapter 2), networks that distributed systems run on (Chapter 3), and communication protocols between processes in distributed systems (Chapter 4).These chapters are basic for understanding the following chapters.

The second topic area is the middleware of distributed systems. This part covers interaction between distributed objects (Chapter 5), security in distributed systems (Chapter 7), and name services (Chapter 9). Chapter 17 offers a detailed CORBA case study to help reader better understand previous chapters about distributed middleware.

The third topic area is distributed operating systems. Although the author talks about various subareas of distributed operating systems, such as distributed file systems (Chapter 8), distributed multimedia systems (Chapter 15), and distributed shared memory (Chapter 16), the book could have included a very important part of distributed operating systems - distributed scheduling.

It is a good choice to gather distributed algorithms as an independent part, although these algorithms are used by other topic areas. Chapter 10 describes the algorithms related to time and global states, and Chapter 11 describes those related to coordination and agreement.

The final part of the book covers data sharing. In this part, Coulouris et al. first introduce the basic concepts of transaction (Chapter 12), then extends them to distributed transactions (Chapter 13). With distributed transactions, the authors discuss data replication.

Coulouris et al.'s coverage of distributed systems provides sufficient knowledge to evaluate distributed systems or design new ones. Although there is minor problem with the organization of the book, I strongly recommend it as a textbook for an advanced undergraduate course, an introductory postgraduate course, or merely as a self-study reference.

Merely an introduction to Networking concepts
This book mostly explains networking concepts from a point of view of MIS people. I did not find this very useful from a programming concepts point of view, For example book does not explains the fundamental of distributed transactions, concurrency and replication of distributed data. To me it feels like networking concepts and database concepts were merged in one single book. Book in general attempts to covers a wide variety of topics. It is not very useful if you are a serious programmer in Corba or transaction management.

THE book for people working on Distributed Systems.
According to me, the book has been done very nicely. Tthe chapters have been managed carefully and efficiently. Read it once and u will surely know the HOWs , WHATs,WHYs and etcs of Distributed Systems. ... Read more

Isbn: 0201619180
Sales Rank: 131056
Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Computer Bks - Communications / Networking    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Distributed Computer Systems    6. Management Information Systems    7. Networking - General    8. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    9. Computers / Client-Server Computing   

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20thAnniversary Edition
by Frederick P. Brooks
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (02 August, 1995)
list price: $34.99 -- our price: $23.09
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Editorial Review

The classic book on the human elements of software engineering. Software tools and development environments may have changed in the 21 years since the first edition of this book, but the peculiarly nonlinear economies of scale in collaborative work and the nature of individuals and groups has not changed an epsilon.If you write code or depend upon those who do, get this book as soon as possible -- from Amazon.com Books, your library, or anyone else. You (and/or your colleagues) will be forever grateful. Very Highest Recommendation. ... Read more

Reviews (82)

Key concepts for project managers
This is an old book full of good concepts. Its value is not in the examples but on the concepts presented. The reader should focus on the concepts.

Some of the great qualities I found in this book:

- It is compact. Each chapter develops a major idea or concept in full.

- It is inspirational ( I think as you read it, your brain is activated in such a way that you will have ideas about your projects)

- It introduces a solid perspective on the value and impact of intelligence and skill in building or designing a product/system.

- It is applicable to many situations and not only to software projects. (if we could get the internal story of projects done by companies like GM, Ford, Toyota, Daimler Chrysler, Accenture, IBM we probably would find several examples for many of the ideas and concepts presented in the book)

The examples are old, but if you cannot deal with this, it is better to look for another book. One day you may come back and enjoy it.

Read it every 5 years...
I read this book about 1992, when I was just starting my career in software engineering.At the time, I didn't appreciate the book.I struggled through it, but frankly, didn't get much out of it because I was constantly saying to myself, "This book is ancient... what does IBM's OS/360 have to do with the world today?"

Fast forward to 2 years ago...I now had a lot more experience under my belt, and came across this book looking for material on the concept of "Conceptual Integrity" in architectural design.Now that I had the experience to 'relate' to this book, I got so much more out of it!This book isn't so much about the software part of software engineering as it is about the human element.If you are a programmer with several years of experience, or if you are a manager on a growing software project, you will get a lot out of this book.

I made a resolution to myself at that time to read this book once every 5 years...both to get new material out of it, and to provide some kind of 'reflection' on what I have seen in my career in those past 5 years.

So much better than "Code Complete" I can't believe it.
First if you are comparing "Code Complete" a book from MS which has yet to release a product that was complete, it is difficult to stop laughing.

Every new middle manager should read this book, and stop trying to ignore 50 years of experience. Oh yeah, we live in internet time, but we still can't make a project deadline, because human's haven't evolved much in the last 100 years. Yes extreme programming has its place. It's the mini team within the 7 person teams that Brooks outlines.

But its the communication issues within a project that kill bigger teams. Yes some programs and projects don't need this full scale project team. But try to write the flight control software for a modern jet, and you'd better be paying attention to the lessons in this book.

Yet managers still don't learn, go find "Programming Disasters" and see some examples of millions of dollars spent and no working project. People believe that there is some silver bullet instead of trying to work within the framework that they have. No one thinks that gravity doesn't apply to them for very long and neither will they think that communication issues don't apply once they see the disaster that unfolds. Usually though the money has been spent and the company folds/the project dies.

So pay attention! If you want "chief programmers" train them! It's not rocket science. The military trains generals and sargents with regularity, we can train our leaders if we care. To do it on the cheap well, we can see what happens when we try it. ... Read more

Isbn: 0201835959
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Engineering    4. Computers    5. Microprocessors    6. Programming - Software Development    7. Software Engineering    8. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing
by Philip Greenspun
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (April, 1999)
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Editorial Review

This isn't another cookie-recipe approach to planning a successful Web site. Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, by MIT veteran Philip Greenspun, is both broadly conceptual and deeply technical, and it assumes that the reader is willing to think seriously about the challenge of building a content site, a community site, or an e-commerce store before plunging in.

Although heavily Unix-oriented, it does not set out to proselytize a product, or even suggest that there is only one way to solve certain technical challenges. Rather, it encourages the reader to think about Web content and functionality as something designed to help visitors answer questions or do something useful. This may sound nebulous, but his observations about why Web sites go bad are illustrated with many well-chosen examples.

The core of the book is quite technical. Three long sections on publishing, community, and e-commerce architectures are illustrated by the author's data models and working open-source systems, so someone with C, SQL, and a good understanding of Internet Protocol (IP) under his or her belt will get the most out of the discussion. Such technical readers will find numerous Web addresses and other citations for further technical information. The author also invites readers to use his code if appropriate.

Although there is a lot of technical meat here, Greenspun dispenses with a dry, technical tone. Throughout, he manages to speak to the reader in a way that is always interesting and frequently bemused or ironic. The overall effect is that of a wry professor who knows his stuff, has thought about the problems, and isn't about to engage in commercial puffery. --Kathleen Caster ... Read more

Reviews (235)

Beautiful Book
Philip Greenspun is the creator of photo.net and a very entertaining author as well. This a great book for beginners to get an overview of web publishing, online communities, and databases. Some of the specifics of the book are a little dated but the concepts are not. I often refer back to this book for ideas and inspiration. The online version of this book is free, but the print edition has great glossy pages and is packed with gratuitous, full-color pictures from Philip's image library.

Collected (but a bit jumbled) wisdom of a web pundit
This book covers such a wide range of subjects - HTML, web design, SQL, server configuration, e-commerce, accepting credit cards, scalability, futurology, search engines, choosing a database, the nature of buying software, system admin and loads more, all in great depth - that it's almost impossible to characterize the contents. It's also packed full of beautiful, but completely unrelated, photographs; all taken by the author!

Philip Greenspun runs a successful web consultancy with several very busy sites, and seems to have tried to distill all that he has learned into one book. A lot of what he says is very wise, and although I disagree with some of his technology choices, he has thought everything through in great detail. There are quite a few sections which I will re-read and study for my own projects, but many others I will never bother with again. The book's main drawback is its size, which makes it hard to cherry-pick just the bits you need.

If you are looking for ways to use the latest technology to make a web site look cool, this is not the book for you. If you are building or running a site or business with lots of users, and you want to keep them and avoid going crazy in the process, you need this book. And the photos really are good.

Still the book to recommend
It's interesting how a lot of readers complain about the book being all about Phil's ego and Arsdigita,(the company he created that is now part of redhat). It seems those people didn't understand much of the book or found the subject disappointingly tougher than they thought... Yes, web publishing requires more intelligence and thoughfullness some would like to believe. And this book makes you realise that, whether 1998 or 2002.
Most web sites that are data driven these days still use the same principles explained in this book. Most don't use the ACS but the whole idea behind the ACS is one that comes from a sincere desire to facilitate the creation of dynamic (data driven) web sites.
One can tell Greenspun is more than a technologist, but a humanist as well. This would explain the appearance of the book some like to critisize. Certainly Greenspun ego is present, but what can you expect from someone who's got a vast array of knowledge and wisdom to share. Definitely a book any intelligent person will love.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what it takes to create web services.Also, this book is the perfect reference for teaching a class on website development, in a manner that gives students a broad perspective before they delve into the inevitable geek stuff: web application programming, data models, and SQL queries.I've used this book at work to educate some of my cooworkers who were programmers or designers, and to give clients instructive lectures on the subject. ... Read more

Isbn: 1558605347
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Internet    2. Computer Books: Web Publishing    3. Computer Networks    4. Computers    5. Databases    6. Design    7. Desktop Publishing    8. Electronic Publishing    9. Internet - General    10. Internet - Web Site Design    11. Networking - General    12. Web publishing    13. Web sites    14. Computers / Networking / General   

Introduction to the Theory of Computation
by Michael Sipser
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (13 December, 1996)
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Editorial Review

"Intended as an upper-level undergraduate or introductory graduate text in computer science theory," this book lucidly covers the key concepts and theorems of the theory of computation. The presentation is remarkably clear; for example, the "proof idea," which offers the reader an intuitive feel for how the proof was constructed, accompanies many of the theorems and a proof. Introduction to the Theory of Computation covers the usual topics for this type of text plus it features a solid section on complexity theory--including an entire chapter on space complexity. The final chapter introduces more advanced topics, such as the discussion of complexity classes associated with probabilistic algorithms. ... Read more

Reviews (39)

An excellent one-semester intro to theory of computation
The theory of computation represents a fascinating landscape that intersects computer science and mathematics and can be roughly divided into three overlapping areas: automata and formal languages, computability theory, and computational complexity. And there is enough interesting knowledge about each area to fill three books, each twice the size of this one. And because of this I find it remarkable that the author has succeeded in filling a slim volume with the essential theory and results from each area, in a style that not only seems very accessible and intuitive, but also demonstrates important relationships between the three areas. For example, most books on computability theory do not discuss automata outside of Turing machines, but in his book Sipser elegantly proves that the equivalence problem is decidable for deterministic finite automata, but undecidable for pushdown automata.

Not only does the author have very good coverage of the three areas, but he also is able to strike a nice balance between mathematical rigor and intuitive understanding. His "proof idea" proof preambles greatly helped my students better understand the main ideas behind each result. In terms of coverage I found only a handful of introductory topics that were neglected: Greibach Normal Form, Rice and Rice-Shapiro Theorems, algebraic aspects of formal languages, Turing degrees, and perhaps context sensitive languages. With that said, remember that this book is just a semester-long introduction to a vast landscape. I recommend the following books for more depth: Peter Linz, "Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata"; Nigel Cutland, "Introduction to Computability Theory"; Christos Papadimitriou, "Computational Complexity".

Another strength of the book is how the author distinguishes exercises and problems: "exercises" are similar to the worked out examples, and can be solved by following one of the presented examples, algorithms or theorems, while "problems" require significant expository writing and deeper insight. Most undergraduates should be able to handle the exercises, but will find the problems very challenging if not impossible, due to the fact that students at this level are mostly familiar with problems that can be solved in a few steps by following some algorithm. So these problems have the capability of developing student intellect, but if assigned in too large a quantity can break the spirit of the developing student. Have care!

I congratulate Dr. Sipser on this fine book. May it inspire millions of readers to question the meaning of computation and explore its possibilities and limitations.

misleading
yeah, sure, Sipser manages to pack a lot of difficult stuff into a small book and makes it seem easy. think again, you'll find that's because he's not telling you the whole story! a lot of interesting materials are just skipped. For example, Greibach normal form of CFG is nowhere seen in the book, which makes Sipser's explaining of converting CFG to NPDA (lemma 2.13) very uninteresting. Compare with lecture 24 in Kozen's book, you'll see the difference. This book also lacks examples. Without seeing enough examples, you justwon't grasp the concepts firmly. That's mainly the reason why the exercises and problems seem so difficult.

I recommend Kozen's "Automata and Computability", Hopcroft and Ullman's "automata, languages, computation" and Papadimitriou's"computational complexity". but not this one.

readable and concise
Prof. Sipser gives a fabulous introduction to theoretical computer science.His clear and concise proofs are preceding by "Proof Ideas" that give a non-technical overview of the proof to follow.This makes the proofs far easier to follow.He strikes a perfect balance between concise mathematics and eloquent exposition, so the book neither intimidates the novice student nor bores the seasonsedmathematician.This is a model computer science/mathematics textbook! ... Read more

Isbn: 053494728X
Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Computational complexity    3. Computer Bks - General Information    4. Discrete Mathematics    5. General    6. Logic    7. Machine Learning    8. Machine theory    9. Mathematics    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Systems Analysis    12. Computers / Information Theory   

Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation (Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science)
by John E. Hopcroft
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 April, 1979)
list price: $47.00
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Editorial Review

This book is a rigorous exposition of formal languages and models of computation, with an introduction to computational complexity. The authors present the theory in a concise and straightforward manner, with an eye out for the practical applications. Exercises at the end of each chapter, including some that have been solved, help readers confirm and enhance their understanding of the material. This book is appropriate for upper-level computer science undergraduates who are comfortable with mathematical arguments. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

Need some challenge? Come here!
I started to learn this course at the beginning of this semester and I just brought this book from Amazon in August.
I had no introductory course before but I was so curious about this subject so I am taking this graduate level course.
Now, I am in chapter 10, and I would like to give a review of this book.
This book is well organized, from the beginning to the end.
I have read almost each word in this book(including the extra ones in the box), and I would like to say: It is worth to do that.
Although sometimes the sentences are not very clear(maybe because I am an international student), but almost all the ideas are precious. So, please be patient when you are reading.
Trust me, if you do not have any related course before, you need time for it. but if you can understand all the contents in this book, and if you are more energetic, finishing most of the exercise with excalmatory marks, you will find your mind becomes so clear that is beyond your imagination.
For the tests, if there are some in your class, is only a half piece of cake. you will feel 100 points is just for the left hand(given the condition that you are a right-hander). :)
If you buy an international version, prepare to visit the book's website. and I will say this second edition seems to me the -1th edition because it contains all the errors listed on the website. Prepare you pen and become a co-auther of the book.
If you feel you need to improve your mathematics, take it, because reading this book can improve your mathematical thinking and proof ability tremendously.
If you feel all the course in your university is too easy and can not match your intelligence, take it, then you will find something interesting.

first edition is a classic, the second one unremarkable
The first edition is one of the best book in its field. A classic. A reference for many advanced courses in computer theory.

Sadly, the second edition misses a great deal of the first edition. Many chapters were removed. Important lemmas and theorems are missing.

I would gladly exchange my second edition for the first one, if it wasn't out of print.

J.

Excellent introductory text, but has several weaknesses
This was my textbook for an introductory course on Finite Automata and Languages - I enjoyed it a lot and I think that the chapters until the Turing Machines are covered very well, along with good examples. As one previous reviewer has already mentioned, the exercises can get very hard as compared to what's actually presented - this I found not too good.

The topics of complexity classes and NP-Completeness, as well as the chapter on Turing Machines are rather succint and do not cover the full depth. Papadimitriou's "Computational Complexity" does a better job in this respect, even though it is not at all flawless. Some might say that there is a reason why this book is introductory, but I argue that instead of doing a poor job, the authors should have maybe just made another book dealing with the above-mentioned topics.

PS: My professor told me that the first edition was much better - maybe you could find it somewhere in the library, if interested. ... Read more

Isbn: 020102988X
Subjects:  1. Robotics    2. Science/Mathematics    3. Technology & Industrial Arts   

Artificial Intelligence (3rd Edition)
by Winston
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (15 January, 1992)
list price: $107.40 -- our price: $107.40
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Editorial Review

This book is one of the oldest and most popular introductions to artificial intelligence.An accomplished artificial intelligence (AI) scientist, Winston heads MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and his hands-on AI research experience lends authority to what he writes. Winston provides detailed pseudo-code for most of the algorithms discussed, so you will be able to implement and test the algorithms immediately. The book contains exercises to test your knowledge of the subject and helpful introductions and summaries to guide you through the material. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Can't get worse
This book is bad (period). It is very incoherent and ill-organized. The examples are vague and serve anything but support the material. Very theoritical with hardly any real life applications. Lacking in modern AI topics/game design.

Miserable AI book - avoid at all costs
Winston's book is really terrible.I mean truly repellently, malignantly bad."Can it really be as bad as all that?" you wonder.Yes!!It's that bad!!For starters, the book is poorly organized.Topics that logically belong together are often several chapters apart.There is no overall structure to the book.It seems like a collection of topics in AI that were hastily assembled without concern for thematic organization or flow.For example, the forward and backward chaining algorithms are presented in a chapter (Ch. 7) on rule-based systems, but are not even mentioned in the chapter (Ch. 13) on logic!Perceptron training is presented AFTER backpropagation!Contrast this with the much better book by Russell and Norvig, which uses the theme of intelligent agents as a continuing motivation throughout, and which groups related topics into logically arranged chapters.

The examples in Winston are atrocious.The main example in the backpropagation chapter is some kind of classification network with a bizarre topography.This example is so trivial and weird that it totally fails to