Reviews (85)

Good Mathematics Book
This book makes this branch of Mathematics fun. It reads well too. I understand many of the concepts because the presentation is well constructed. Good reading.

A good book
I like this book and use it for teaching my students. As a teacher, you have the opportunity to select similar problems for class activity and homework assignment. Also, you can find not only simple and middle-level problems but also high-level problems to provide a good source for active students. Unfortunately, the author uses the letters "F" and "T" in the truth tables instead of much easier and perspective "0" and "1", which correspond to the real needs, e.g., in computer science. That's the most essential lack, which I've found by this time.

This book is interesting
I like the exclamations and the concepts/problem solving this book teaches.Maybe I am being swayed by the subject because I enjoy it, however, in comparison to other math books, this one livens it up and is a higher then the average mathematics book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Discrete Mathematics    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics   

Editorial Review

Cryptographic techniques have applications far beyond the obvious uses of encoding and decoding information. For Internet developers who need to know about capabilities, such as digital signatures, that depend on cryptographic techniques, there's no better overview than Read more

Reviews (96)

A must-have book for understanding Cryptography.
This book has really shed a lot of light on cryptography for me. I honestly can't put it down--I wish I had paid more attention in my statistics classes so I could be able to apply some of the stuff the author talks about better. I am about half way through the book, and I haven't gotten to the point where it's more of a chore than a pleasure to read it (something I can't about my other technical books).
Prepare to drink from the firehose
This book is really incredible.When it was first published in the mid-90's, there was almost no material available on the subject of cryptography.Now, ten years later, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of books riding on Schneier's coattails - but almost none have anything new or useful to say.Impeccably researched (with 1,653 references!) and unarguably complete, Schneier's expertise in theoretical mathematics, experience as a practitioner, and razor-sharp lucidity combine to make this the only book you'll ever need on the subject of cryptography.

Text Book for School
The book was in excellent condition.The book came within the alloted time period.No complaints! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer security    3. Computers - Computer Security    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Cryptography    6. Discrete Mathematics    7. Programming Languages - General    8. Security - General    9. Security measures    10. Telecommunication    11. Computers / Security    12. Data security & data encryption   

Reviews (37)

Very nice book
A must buy for students or researchers who need numerical methods. Comprehensive topics. A good place to start to deeper levels. Online book is good for quick look.

A classic, and still worth having
"Numerical Recipes" has been a staple in computing libraries for many years, and for good reason. It provides immediately usable implementations of all the workhorses of numerical computation, in production-quality form. Maybe there are better implementations out there, FFTW for example, but getting something to work correctly always comes before getting it to work fast. Numerical computation is a specialty, and vanishingly few of us are specialists. As a result, getting this much specialist knowledge for the price of a very few hours' wage, fully debugged and documented, is a great bargain.
Great compilation of numerical routines for C programmers
I found this book indispensible in my effort to develop profitable trading systems for futures and options and in my research in factor analysis and, more recently, in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Anyone who programs in C or C++ and works with mathematics must have this book. It covers a surprisingly wide range of algorithms: routines are included for everything from handling Julian dates and solving systems of linear equations to determining eigenvectors and singular value decompositions, solving differential equations, doing numerical integration (quadrature), not to mention calculating fast fourier transforms, lomb periodograms and maximum entropy spectral analyses. While not always state-of-the-art, the routines are quite reliable (when used correctly), clearly-written, and easy to understand and use. I would strongly recommend this book (and the companion software) to anyone who programs in C and is literate in mathematics. I always keep a copy nearby.
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Subjects:  1. Applied    2. C (Computer program language)    3. C (Programming Language)    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Discrete Mathematics    7. Mathematics    8. Numerical Analysis    9. Programming Languages - C    10. Mathematics / General    11. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (11)

Great text on discrete mathematics especially for non-math majors
I used an earlier edition of this textbook in a discrete mathematics class that was required for those of us with a non-CS background enrolled in a MSCS program at Virginia Tech, and I found this to be an excellent and complete book on the subject. If you find yourself enrolled in a class using this book, you can be sure of two things - your instructor knows how to select good textbooks and also it won't matter if your instructor is a good teacher since this book does all of the work for him/her.
Great Introductory Book
For a subject which has so much potential to be conveyed in complicated and esoteric ways, this book actually manages to present every single chapter in a clear and accessible way, even for those unfamiliar with formal logic.
Great Book for Discrete Maths Beginners
The author of the book explained the concepts from ground up. The most interesting chapters I have gone through so far are Chapter 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10. Those chapters definitely build up my mathematical foundation and understanding for Computer Science subjects.
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Subjects:  1. Calculus    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Discrete Mathematics    5. Discrete Mathematics (Computer Science)    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Mathematical theory of computation    9. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (20)

Lots of code but little explanation
The explanations are cursory and tend to overlook many of the points to be considered before applying one of their examples to real problems. While good at providing source code for an experienced signal processing engineer or mathematician, this book can be dangerous for those in search of a quick fix without the background to evaluate what they are really doing.

Obligatory book
What can I say? I think that I only want to say that this book is the best of the best when you talk about numerical methods. A lot of code and a great mathematical background. It's an obligation to have this book.

A good starting point
This is very simply the only book that explains all essential numerical algorithms comprehensively and gives examples how one might implement them. The infinite number of reviews and discussions about the code can - in my eyes - be summarized as follows: it works, it lacks robustness, and you will find a better open-source alternative to virtually every single function. Some details that are worth knowing:
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Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Discrete Mathematics    7. Numerical Analysis    8. Probability & Statistics - General    9. Programming Languages - C++    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (8)

An unusually clear book -- and great for OCR researchers.
This nifty book is unusual in several respects: it is written in an extremely clear and simple style; it presents good clear code, both in print and on the accompanying CD; and it presents a variety of different methods for achieving each given goal. For example, the book presents a half-dozen different algorithms (usually with code) for edge-detection, for thresholding, and for skeletonization. For the most part, the book does a good job of explaining the relative merits or suitabilities of the different algorithms.
Outstanding source of implementations of image processing algorithms
This book is a great source of code for the implementations of common and not so common algorithms used in image processing and computer vision. It is not meant to be a textbook on either subject. For that I suggest you turn to "Digital Image Processing" by Gonzalez and Woods for the subject of image processing and to "Computer Vision" by Linda Shapiro for computer vision.
I like this book
It has source C code available, which I found is very helpful. It would be better if its code is written in C++. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer algorithms    4. Computer vision    5. Digital techniques    6. Discrete Mathematics    7. Image Processing (Engineering)    8. Image processing    9. Imaging Systems    10. Optics    11. Technology    12. Technology & Industrial Arts    13. Computers / Computer Vision    14. Mathematical theory of computation    15. Signal processing   

Reviews (1)

Which Book ?
Is there a difference between
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Subjects:  1. Discrete Mathematics    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics   

Reviews (16)

Advanced Crypto for the college mind.
This very detailed work is not for the light hearted. It's an in depth look at the mathmatics behind cryptography. If you're looking for a book to help you program then look for Applied Cryptography by Bruce the crypto king instead. If you're looking for something to help you learn cryptoanalysis and how to break codes then this is the first step.

Fantastic traditional reference
The Chapter 14 - Efficient Implementation - shows several multiple precision algorithms. They are very easy to understand and implement under any microprocessor. It is a very good complement to the book set written by Donald Knuth (The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set), another fantastic traditional reference.

A very detailed book, but not for everyone.
This is a fairly strong book on crypto, with heavy detail on the math involved.The upside is that the second chapter is devoted to most of the important mathematical theory you'll need to understand for the rest of the book.The downside?That chapter tries to cover just about the same breadth of information as a semester long course in Number Theory.Read more

Subjects:  1. Access control    2. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    3. Computers    4. Computers - Computer Security    5. Cryptography    6. Cryptography/Access Control    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Handbooks, manuals, etc    9. Reference    10. Security - General    11. Applications of Computing    12. Applied mathematics    13. Data security & data encryption    14. Mathematical theory of computation    15. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Reviews (9)

Got Mathematica?Buy This Book NOW!
The positive reviews were right on the money, this book is the best!It allowed me to start using Mathematica with ease, compared to the many hours of past frustration while working on optimizations.I fought endlessly, struggling to decipher the software's baroque navigation, cryptic errors, hostility to the user which borders on abuse - but now Mathematica and I are becoming great friends thanks to Heikki Ruskeepaa's wonderful tome.THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS BOOK!!! Absolutely Great Mathematica Textbook
While it is unlikely that there is a pure Mathematica course anywhere, the textbook for it already exists! Solutions
To solve practical problems in Mathematica the navigator is very usefull. If you want to go deeper,"modeling nature" by Gaylord and Nishidate is a usefull guide. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Data processing    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. General    5. Mathematica (Computer file)    6. Mathematical & Statistical Software    7. Mathematics    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Computers / Educational Software / General   

Reviews (11)

Very in-depth explanations
I bought this book not because I have any interest in computational biology but because at that time I had an interest in (and professional need for) extremely fast and efficient ways to search through massive data stores.In this I was not disappointed, having found thorough treatments of how to do exact pattern matching as well as various types of "closest" match searching though very large data sets in minimal time.
nice intersection of computing and biology
The text sits at the intersection of computer science and computational biology. It centres around the observation made by the author and others that often in CS, one has to manipulate strings of text, which are just sequences of text. While in computational biology, a recurrent theme is how to deal with sequences of molecules. These might be in a DNA sample or in a protein.
What it says, it says best.
If you haven't read this book, you don't know biological string matching. The book's focus is clearly on string algorithms, but the author gives good biological significance to the problems that each technique solves. I came away from this book understanding the algorithms, but also knowing why the algorithms were valuable.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    2. Computational biology    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer algorithms    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Data processing    8. Discrete Mathematics    9. General    10. Molecular Biology    11. Programming - General    12. Algorithms & procedures    13. Computers / General    14. Pattern recognition   

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. Read more

Reviews (45)

Terrible
I do not understand why this book is rated so highly.
Most appropriate for CS students
As a teacher of the subject, I have had the chance to evaluate numerous books on the theory of computation.Of all the available texts, I think this one is the most appropriate for CS students.In the past I taught out of Dexter Kozen's book, which is incredibly elegant, but had some resistance from the students.Thinking it over I decided that Kozen's text, although beautiful, may be better suited to students pursuing a degree in pure math.Sipser's book, on the other hand, is more gentle.I find that Sipser demands far less mathematical maturity from his readers, and thus allows the difficulty to be shifted from excessive formalism to the inherent challenges present in the material.In addition, following Sipser's treatment, I was able to cover finite state machines and pushdown automata in far less time, thus allowing me to concentrate on computability and beyond.The book really shines in its treatment of computability theory, eloquently directing attention to some of the most beautiful aspects.
Excellent accessible textbook on the theory of computation
The theory of computation is the branch of computer science that deals with whether and how efficiently problems can be solved on a computer. The field is divided into two major branches: computability theory and complexity theory, but both branches deal with formal models of computation, and both of these subjects are dealt with in this book. This is an important subject because no matter what leaps forward computers make, something that is proved undecidable and not computable will always be so, thus the theory behind this subject is very important.
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Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Computational complexity    3. Computers - 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    13. Mathematical theory of computation   

Reviews (7)

Image Analysis Book Review
I found the book to be very informative and I acquired several ideas from reading it. But, I repeatedly found myself searching the book for definitions of some of the terms it uses throughout its text. Practical Algorithms for Image Analysis will introduce new terms without any hint of their meaning, assuming that the reader already knows all they need to know about the subject matter (which would negate the need to buy the book!). This book sorely needs a glossary.

It's just great
The book is just great! I used the source code from the CD-ROM for various image processing projects. The algorithms are also very practical if you have to deal with images. The code is neat and ready to compile and run. Luis J Gutierrez
Excelente libro.hace un tiempo que he estado estudiando y desarrollando estrategias para la implementaci�n de sistemas de vision computarizada. Este libro es de una gran claridad pr�ctica sin abandonar la necesaria base teorica. Muy buenos ejemplo, informaci�n adicional, ejemplos y aplicaciones.Para cualquier investigador en el �rea debe ser considerado como un recurso indispensable. (if you want my comments in english please send me an e-mail to innovacl@vtr.net) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algorithms    2. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    3. Computer Books: Database    4. Computers    5. Data Transmission Systems - General    6. Data processing    7. Digital Image Processing    8. Digital techniques    9. Discrete Mathematics    10. General    11. Image analysis    12. Image processing    13. Imaging Systems    14. Mathematics    15. Applied optics    16. Image processing--Digital techniques    17. Science / History   

Reviews (14)

Not every scholar should write for students.
I was a student of Mr. Ross's, taking Discrete Math, a few years ago.He's is a very intelligent man and seemed to enjoy teaching.Unfortunately, he was not very good at it.And same goes for this text book of his.His attitude and approach in the classroom and the book's alike might be helpful if the student has already mastered the majority of the covered topics, in which case, this book becomes useless.

I agree with what everyone else says....
This book will cost you much more than the principle "investment" of $100+, given the time required to interperet Ross's examples, and in many cases, un/re-learn the material.

terrible book
I keep thinking as I'm forced to use this book for a college course, that Discrete Math would not be so confusing to me if not for this textbook. With a good textbook, I believe the concepts would not be very difficult, but this book makes them so. True, they have many examples - very few of which cover the complex things you are then asked to do in the Exercises. If I could give it negative stars, I would, since it doesn't teach us but confuses us. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer science    2. Discrete Mathematics    3. Discrete Mathematics (Computer Science)    4. Machine Theory    5. Mathematics    6. Mathematics (Specific Aspects)    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Mathematics / Advanced   

Reviews (6)

Great introductory text
I recently used this book in an undergraduate course on algorithm design and analysis.While some areas of the book are lacking (specifically answers to critical exercises and some concepts were a little rough in their explainations), overall the book provides a good introduction to both sequential and parallel algorithms.
Appealing book
This book will help anyone learn about the design and analysis of algorithms-even without the prior knowledge of algorithms. It starts with the basic principles, using good and proven examples such as factorial computation. Anyone with basic mathematics knowledge will have no problem following the authors.
Well written, full of pseudocode and examples
I took the undergrad/grad version of the class from one of the co-authors last quarter and found it to be quite enjoyable.I agree that an answer key to at least some of the exercises would be helpful if you were trying to work through this material on your own, but I was quite impressed with the diagrams and figures, especially the ones illustrating the operation of the pseudocode.I felt the book had a good mix of theoretical discussion with more practical "hands-on" treatment of the specific algorithms discussed.Is it "Algorithms for Dummies?" No.But if you work through the illustrations as you read the text, I found it quite understandable, and don't know how you could simplify it any further without losing something in the translation.All in all, I was quite pleased.
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Subjects:  1. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computer algorithms    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Parallel processing (Electroni    9. Parallel processing (Electronic computers)    10. Programming - General    11. Programming Languages - General    12. Sequential Machine Theory    13. Sequential processing (Compute    14. Sequential processing (Computer science)    15. Computer Programming    16. Computer architecture & logic design    17. Mathematical theory of computation   

Reviews (29)

excellent book for game developers
I'm about 2/3 through this book now, and I've found it very helpful.The explanations are good, and what I particularly like is how he illustrates most of the topics with pictures and graphs, explaining the relevance to rendering graphics in games.Unlike most math books and courses I've taken, I'm not left wondering "what the heck relevance does THIS have?" every time I turn a page.He also does provide C++ code game graphics rendering at the end of most topics.The code is very useful, and well explained.I can definitely see myself using some of it in future projects.
Great Introduction to the Math and Algorithms Behind Rendering
The first time I tried to read this book, I took frequent breaks and only made it to about chapter 10, not really understanding a few of the proofs and algorithms. However, after going through the entire book all at once in about a week, I was able to understand everything. It was definately worth it.
Not for Novices or Intermediate
Not an easy read. I thought of myself as being an intermediate level mathematician - leaning slightly towards the novice, but this was beyond my expectations.After the first few chapters on Vectors, getting into Matrices he lost me.Even some of the vector math lost me.Sure, if I want to find the cross product of two 3d vectors I can do it, I'd just go look up his source code,but *why* it works exactly?Don't know.
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Subjects:  1. Advanced    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer games    4. Computer graphics    5. Computer science    6. Computers - Games    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Game Theory    9. Mathematics    10. Programming    11. Programming - Software Development    12. Science/Mathematics    13. Video & Electronic - General    14. Applied mathematics    15. Computers / General    16. Image processing: graphics (static images)   

Reviews (5)

Very challenging, very deep
This is an excellent book on combinatorics, but it is quite difficult to understand.The author often chooses a more general framework in which to present things, and this can make the material quite difficult to follow.But the rewards for the diligent reader are great.Occasionally I question how Stanley chooses to present a certain topic, but usually if I look closely enough, I see that there are often some very deep reasons for his choice of notation or presentation.
A Masterpiece on Enumerative Combinatorics
I agree with the other reviewers.The book is a masterpiece on enumerative combinatorics.However, I am not so sure that it is a good book for a beginner.If you are a beginner, then you should read another book first, like John Riordan's book on "Combinatorial Analysis."Stanley's book is best suited for an advanced student who has a high level of mathematical mental maturity.The reason I say this is that in a few places Stanley's formalism, which is entirely appropriate for professional exposition, actually obscures the underlying simplicity of the mathematical ideas.We have all seen this in research papers, where a mathematician takes a trivial idea and "obsures" the underlying simplicity with too much formalism.However, for an advanced student, the book has a high density of important ideas and methods.

This is for people who likes to COUNT
Gosh! This is for people who count, what else does a combinatorist do? Before people dismiss me as somebody who don't know hoot about math: I took a class with Prof. Stanley (the author) in college, and I had actually used vol 1 as a text. The material is highbrow (I agree on the 'hardcore' math observation) but the main theme of the book is how to 'count' -- needless to say not in the sense of everyday counting, but in the sense that 'topology' is 'coffee-to-donut transformation' and 'analysis' is 'honors calculus'. You have to know how to count, and comfortable with combinatorial proof to actually learn from this. I like the fact that Prof. Stanley asks for combinatorial proof to some known results, marking them as unsolved -- he really elevates the status of combinatorial proof, a method many dismiss as 'handwaving'. There is a number given to each exercise, according to the level of difficulty: [1] for trivial, [5] unsolved. I saw a professor who worked in differential topology for 40 years refer to this book -- and first year undergrads thumbing through the pages for exercises marked [1] and [2] to solve in spare time. This is a book for all levels of mathematicians: I am sure even the armchair amateur mathematicians can grasp some of the materials after a hard day's thought. I dont see this book as any less than a definitive text on enumerative combinatiorics. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorics    2. Discrete Mathematics    3. Functional Analysis    4. Mathematics    5. Theory Of Functions    6. Combinatorial enumeration problems    7. Combinatorics & graph theory    8. Mathematics / Probability   

Reviews (30)

Content left as an exercise
I had the "pleasure" of being exposed to this nightmare of a book in a bachelor level course. I am told that it is normal to use this book on masters-degree level, so maybe it's because I wasn't "prepared" enough for this book that my take on it is so negative. The book does have it's moments, where things are understandable, but thats mainly if the stuff is easy. There is a lack of explenations throughout the entire book. It seems the author(s) view of "explenation" is the words "it is easy to see..." or "left as an exercise"....The proof of my feelings toward this book, can be seen on the teeth-marks that decorate the books cover. Im not writing this, because I need to vent steam...I passed the course on the first try, and it is now behind me, but I advice anyone faced with this book, to seek alternatives..this book is not a teaching book, it is a telling book.
A good textbook
I taught a couple of classes from the first edition of this textbook, and my students did fairly well.On the whole, they were able to understand the material and solve the homework problems.I certainly wouldn't mind teaching a class on this subject from the second edition as well, which I feel is a mild improvement over the first one.
First and foremost, a math book
I enjoyed this book because I enjoy formal mathematics.This is not an applications book, but a formal study of the mathematics that underly algorithmic design and analysis.I'm no math wizard, and I found this book readable (but I had to take it very slowly).The course for which I bought the book only covered chapters 1 - 4 and glossed over the final 3 chapters, but I intend to read the rest over the summer between semesters because it's so well and thoroughly written.This book is *dense*.I had to re-read everything three times before I absorbed it all, but ultimately I've understood everything I've read.The hardest parts to understand were the formal "proofs by induction" on the lengths of strings and sets - and, as any math student knows, you can gloss over the proofs on the first reading.A lot of the formal definitions (finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines, context-free grammars, etc.) baffled me on the first reading, but after reviewing the examples and working through a few problems, I could go back, re-read the formal definition and understand it.
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Subjects:  1. Computational complexity    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Mathematics    4. Computer Science    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Formal languages    9. Logic    10. Logic, Symbolic and mathematic    11. Machine theory    12. Computers / Programming / Algorithms    13. Mathematical theory of computation    14. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (3)

Love, love, love this book...
I happen to love studying probability theory and the probabilistic method and this is the book I come to time and time again. It is well organized and provides great, straightforward, insightful explanations. However, its main strength is its wealth of beautiful (fairly recently) results (in varied fields) which show the method coming to life. Can't recommend this enough...

Learn from the masters
This book shows you how to approach problems in discrete mathematics that don't seem to be probabilistic at all, and nonetheless to apply probabilistic methods to find extremely sharp results. The book is full of beautifully chosen examples worked out by the authors, who are world class researchers in this subject area. Should be on the bookshelf of everyone who uses discrete mathematics.

A very interesting book
I found this book very enjoyable to read. Although theunderlying themeof the book is to demonstrate examples of proofs of existence of a propertyof a finite structure by showing the structure must have the property withpositive probabiltiy, the book goes beyond this to cover areas such ascircuit complexity and discrepancy theory that rely heavily onprobabilistic arguments. A must read for anyone who wants to addprobablistic tools to their toolbox for proving things about discretestructures. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial Analysis    2. Combinatorics    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Mathematics    5. Probabilities    6. Probability & Statistics - General    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Combinatorics & graph theory    9. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics    10. Probability & statistics   

Subjects:  1. Discrete Mathematics    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics    4. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics