Discrete Mathematics Using a Computer [Paperback]

Cordelia Hall (Author), John O'Donnell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1852330899 | ISBN-13: 978-1852330897 | Publication Date: February 29, 2000 | Edition: 1

This volume offers a new, "hands-on" approach to teaching Discrete Mathematics. A simple functional language is used to allow students to experiment with mathematical notations, which are traditionally difficult to pick up. This practical approach provides students with instant feedback and also allows lecturers to monitor progress easily. All the material needed to use the book will be available via ftp (the software is freely available and runs on Mac, PC and Unix platforms), including a special module which implements the concepts to be learned. No prior knowledge of Functional Programming is required: apart from List Comprehension (which is comprehensively covered in the text), everything the students need is either provided for them, or can be picked up easily as they go along. An Instructors Guide will also be available on the web, to help lecturers adapt existing courses.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Discrete Mathematics Using a Computer offers a new, "hands-on" approach to teaching Discrete Mathematics. Using software that is freely available on Mac, PC and Unix platforms, the functional language Haskell allows students to experiment with mathematical notations and concepts -- a practical approach that provides students with instant feedback and allows lecturers to monitor progress easily. This second edition of the successful textbook contains significant additional material on the applications of formal methods to practical programming problems. There are more examples of induction proofs on small programs, as well as a new chapter showing how a mathematical approach can be used to motivate AVL trees, an important and complex data structure. Designed for 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students, the book is also well suited for self-study. No prior knowledge of functional programming is required; everything the student needs is either provided or can be picked up easily as they go along. Key features include: • Numerous exercises and examples • A web page with software tools and additional practice problems, solutions, and explanations, as well as course slides • Suggestions for further reading Complete with an accompanying instructor's guide, available via the web, this volume is intended as the primary teaching text for Discrete Mathematics courses, but will also provide useful reading for Conversion Masters and Formal Methods courses. Visit the book’s Web page at: http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jtod/discrete-mathematics/ --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (February 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852330899
• ISBN-13: 978-1852330897
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,818,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From maths to software: elegant and clever, August 7, 2007

By 

Hans-peter Vittali - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discrete Mathematics Using a Computer (Paperback)

Discrete Mathematics Using a Computer is the best book I have seen so far when studying how to use the elegance of discrete mathematics (for example: list comprehension, recursion, sets, relations, trees) in programming. The book is exceptional in showing how you can transform mathematical thoughts into the functional programming language HASKELL without loosing the expressiveness of the mathematical formulation. The book shows how to write two- ore three-liners of compact, readable code that implements algorithms (like tree traversal) that usually takes at least a page or two of ugly "for-if-loop-code" in languages like C++ or Java. There are chapters on important applications of the proposed concepts for the design of digital circuits and for
AVL Trees. The text clearly shows the strengths of functional programming compared to imperative programming (Java, C, ...) for many programming tasks and it helps the programmer to better choose his tools.
Finally, the book contains clever and helpfull exercises with many answers. The book has a website providing dedicated code (HASKELL) for the examples.

5 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pitiful excuse for a textbook, October 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Discrete Mathematics Using a Computer (Paperback)

This book purports to be a college text for discrete math. It is terrible. There aren't nearly enough examples in the book. Explanations are woefully brief, giving one sentence to the definition of a set intersection, for example. Many new concepts sneak up on you without ever being discussed. In one instance it started using a point by point proof method without ever introducing that method. The rules given in some proofs are not defined earlier, leaving the reader to wonder what the authors are doing in their proof. The use of Haskel is another downside. There is no way to check your proofs aside from the proof checker software included which will drive a person to complete insanity. The software is so terribly picky in its syntax, you take more time verifying your proof than actually coming up with it. When there are errors with your syntax, it doesn't give a meaningful message. This is more the fault of Haskel, however. Nevertheless, it is the fault of the authors to choose this terrible method for teaching. Garbage.