Customer Reviews

Compression Algorithms for Real Programmers (The For Real Programmers Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mr. Wayner offers a fairly comprehensive introduction to a number of various compression schemes and techniques, ranging from simple substitution and dictionary based methods (such as Huffman-encoding) to more advanced algorithms (such as Fourier transforms, MP3 music, and JPEG image compression).

Note the word "introduction" in the title of the review, however. If you're looking for a comprehensive specification of a specific algorithm, this book is not the place to look. There are numerous papers and books digging deeply into a single algorithm or codec. Compression Algorithms will simply give you a broad understanding of the theory behind these compression techniques, along with some algorithms written in pseudocode or mathematical notation.

Compression by nature is a highly mathematical or algorithmic process, and so, by nature, the book may be slightly too mathematically inclined for some, but I simply can't fault the author for this, as any additional simplification of the material presented would have rendered it useless for real professionals looking for more than a sugar-coated description of the algorithms.

I had purchased this book for two reasons: Firstly, I am the sound programmer for a game development company, and sound compression is an important part of today's interactive computer entertainment titles. Coverage of sound compression techniques was advertised, and I feel I got my money's worth because of the information I obtained. This may seem strange since a cursory glance of the book will show the chapter on audio compression to be only 8 pages long. However, a deeper inspection will show that the chapter builds on a great deal of earlier material that, although not specific to audio compression, negates the requirement for a lengthy chapter later. Perhaps the only fault with this is in book organization. Secondly, because I will be creating a proprietary compression system, it is important to have a broad understanding of many different compression techniques in order to create the most versatile hybrid compression scheme for our sound engine. To this end, the book also does a great job. It certainly may be necessary for me to follow up with some books on specific algorithms, but without having first read Mr. Wayner's book, I would not have known about those algorithms in the first place.

I've given the book 4 out of 5 star because the book seems a bit short (177 pages, excluding the appendices) for the price, and for subjecting me to no less than 24 images of his foot (he couldn't have found a more interesing image as an example?). Overall, though, I found the book well written and extremely valuable for the work I plan to start very shortly in my new position.

Despite the title, "Compression Algorithms for Real Programmers," the true audience for this book is not only programmers, but anyone who would like a brief introduction to compression algorithms and the patent politics impacting their use. The book is rather lightweight on details of the algorithms; as such, it is a good overture for programmers, but a dangerous source from which to create software, as "real" programmers often do.

This book was an introduction to the field for me, and for that I found it valuable. However, even though I am a compression neophyte, I found many errors in the examples and the explanations. What concerns me is that if compression novice, as I am, can find errors, how many more hidden errors are in there that I could not deduce? These mistakes often made it difficult to understand the algorithms the author is trying to explain. Not only must one try to comprehend the algorithms, one must first determine what the author actually meant to write. In addition, there are errors in grammar and typesetting that impact the smooth reading of the sometimes complex text.

The book would have benefited greatly from a careful reading by three editors: a technical reading by someone in the intended audience, a technical reading an expert in the field, and a literary reading to smooth out the writing, correct the grammar and point out the typesetting errors. Had the author and editors been more careful, I would have given the text four stars rather than the two.

Use it as a first book, an introduction, for ideas, and source for references. However, follow up on the references before proceeding to create even a line of code.

I found this book very superficial and not much detail
in its descriptions. As a "real programmer (???)", this book
is not what I want. It does not give the in-depth information
that a "real programmer" would require, you might as well
go read the original papers with all the confusing and
obfuscating mathematics.

This book does has one big plus, one of the appendices (almost
50 pages) lists many, if not most, of the relevent patents
concerning compression.

This book gave me a excellent understanding of the common compression algorithms. The book is well ordered for progressing from introductory concepts to the most common algorithms and then on to more difficult subjects. I found it very helpful to read all the chapter introductions first, then read through the entire book. The chapter introductions would make a good book by themselves. The description of Huffman encoding was excellent. The book is careful to point out the legalities of using and developing compression algorithms. The examples are clear and concise; they demonstrate the text very well. The reader is encouraged to search for new and better algorithms, since the current theories on information and compression do not describe specific solutions to data compression. The author responded promptly from the email address given in the book. He was professional and encouraging.

Despite the title, "Compression Algorithms for Real Programmers," the true audience for this book is not only programmers, but anyone who would like a brief introduction to compression algorithms and the patent politics impacting their use. The book is rather lightweight on details of the algorithms; as such, it is a good overture for programmers, but a dangerous source from which to create software, as "real" programmers often do.

This book was an introduction to the field for me, and for that I found it valuable. However, even though I am a compression neophyte, I found many errors in the examples and the explanations. What concerns me is that if compression novice, as I am, can find errors, how many more hidden errors are in there that I could not deduce? These mistakes often made it difficult to understand the algorithms the author is trying to explain. Not only must one try to comprehend the algorithms, one must first determine what the author actually meant to write. In addition, there are errors in grammar and typesetting that impact the smooth reading of the sometimes complex text.

The book would have benefited greatly from a careful reading by three editors: a technical reading by someone in the intended audience, a technical reading an expert in the field, and a literary reading to smooth out the writing, correct the grammar and point out the typesetting errors. Had the author and editors been more careful, I would have given the text four stars rather than the two.

Use it as a first book, an introduction, for ideas, and source for references. However, follow up on the references before proceeding to create even a line of code.

This book takes an algorithmic approach to discussing compression methods and tries to break down each method discussed into a brief explanation, some numbered algorithmic steps, and also some pseudocode. Images are included to demonstrate the result of varying parameters on various compression/decompression methods. The book does a pretty good job of giving you a feeling of steps the programmer will need to take, but it isn't detailed enough - and in most cases couldn't be given its short length - that you could perform a detailed implementation. 60 pages of the book concern compression patents and the bibliography and have nothing to do with algorithms at all.

This book could have contained a lot more detail, but it did manage to keep the mathematics to a minimum, which is probably in keeping with its "For Real Programmers" label. Do note that, contrary to what the title implies, there is no code included in this book. You must implement the routines yourselves from the given pseudocode and descriptions given. The book discusses common compression algorithms such as JPEG, MPEG, LZ, and Huffman, but in insufficient detail in most cases. This is a good introduction to data compression concepts, but I think "Introduction to Data Compression" by Sayood does a much better job of covering all the bases.

Most of the compression books I've seen have either been very mathematical using a theorem/proof presentation, or code cookbooks that don't explain the ideas very clearly. This book uses that all too rare "conceptual" presentation. It very clearly explains the main ideas in compression, with very few equations. The examples are nicely chosen. I would strongly recommend this as a first book on compression. However, it is also a very enjoyable read for people more familiar with the field. The chapter on patents is very interesting even for experts.

This book surveys the most important compression techniques being used today. It gets to the point quickly, explaining why, or why not, a given technique works in various situations. Advanced users will appreciate his chapter on various patents in this field. A definite must for anyone's compression library, even if you're already an expert.