Customer Reviews

Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability

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

 

 

Software designs must address trade-offs among factors such as performance, usability, completeness, timeliness, correctness and so on. Judging from the number of bugs people encounter, software engineers seem to be trading away too much of the correctness factor for something else.

Hein's text addresses this issue by placing much greater emphasis on ideas from logic and methods of proof than most other books on discrete mathematics, such as the popular text by Rosen. In addition, Hein includes material relating important software concepts to abstract algebra, and he does this without slighting other common topics of discrete mathematics, such as sets, relations, functions, counting, automata, and computability. Software engineers who have learned from Hein's text will have practical tools that they can use to deal with the software correctness factor more effectively.

Besides all of these good qualities, the text is well organized, clearly written, and punctuated with deligtfully subtle humor. I plan to use it.

I've taught from this text for 8 years. The excellent students have no problem with it. The average students complain that it is hard to understand. I don't think any text covering these topics could be easier to understand, actually.

There are plenty of examples in the text. However, the exercises tend to be significantly more complex than the examples. The answers to many exercises are in the back of the book, which is a great help to students.

I'm required to use this book as I go to Portland State University where Hein taught for a while. The examples are helpful, but often I find the formal definitions hard to follow. I'm not the only one who has mentioned this about the book in my classes...we use it for 3 quarters.

This book can get you more lost than a first grader walking home from school. The exercise problems are terrible. It gives you the answers to all the easy problems and the hard problems which the chapters dont explain anything well will have you frustrated and confused. The chapters give you examples, but are not clear of how to work each example out. It just gives you the solution to the problem without giving an explanation. I have yet to find a solutions manual for this book. The book is not organized very well. If you have to have this book for a class, I suggest doing all the problems in each exercise, and the ones you cant figure out ask your teacher. I'm on my last two semesters in my CS degree and I have good programming skills, I would not recommend this book.

I'm a student and beginner at discrete math and all related to this book. The book fails to teach in plain English and requiers you to come back to read over and over again what you failed to understand the first, second and third time.

The problems in each section are increadibily higher skilled than the examples and almost impossible to get the right answers. Some problems are even leagues away of what the examples imply and you would have never guessed where the answers on the back of the book came from.

This book provides excellent coverage of logic and computability (I haven't really looked at the "Discrete Structures" component yet), but is often unnecessarily verbose in its explanations. It would work well in conjunction with a well-taught class, but not necessarily as good on its own.

Now, since I took two terms of classes that used Dr. Hein's book, I had internal urges to write emails to Dr. Hein and praise him for his book and his lab manual (but I never did wrote to him, though). Instead, I decided to write to a broader audience, here at Amazon. I found the book ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, a Holistic Bible of Computer Logic so to speak, for every CS student. I have read and re-read the book and still reading it today, during the Summer Break. I scanned the whole book with a flatbed scanner because I needed to look things up often even as I studied other courses at Portland State University. I also highly recommend Dr. Hein's Prolog Lab Manual which guides you through the experiments designed to help understanding the Book's material. Marvelous Lab Manual, Dr. Hein! It is my opinion that Doctor Hein has a profound vision of where Computer Science is going and that's why he designed his Book and his lab manual this way. The Book and Lab Manual helped me tremendously to understand recursion and logic.
PS: I never write reviews of books, but this particular book have always prompted urges to praise it.

This textbook probably seems excellent to people who already know a programming language and discrete mathematics. However, a beginner will not like it. The exercise sets are much more complex than the examples. I have been in college for almost four years, and I have read many textbooks. Not all of them are equal. A textbook with wide scope is good for people who are knowledgeable about the subjects. On the contrary, a textbook with less scope is good for beginners because there is more focus on fundamentals. This textbook has a wide scope, which means beginners will not understand it well.

This book is required for two classes at Portland State. I honestly agree with a few reviewers here when they say it is better used as a door stop. The common chapter will briefly explain the subject matter, never in great detail. It includes graphs and pictures that most people won't understand, unless you sit and study it for longer than you should. Finally, the reader is then expected to complete exercises that are far more complex than anything the book has shown, most of which the book hasn't even taught or even mentioned.

Unless you are required to take this book, my opinion is to find a completely different book. One where the subject matter is actually taught, not simply briefly explained.

Also, as to the teacher here calling people average for not understanding this book... You're a douche.

some parts are not clear enough and you certainly need additional refrences for better understanding. If you use this book as your textbook, you do not need additional refrences sine your instructor will fill those gaps. Overall very usefull book.