Customer Reviews

Foundations Of Algorithms Using C++ Pseudocode

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

 

 

I attend the school in which these two professors received their tenureship, and I must say, that this book is an absolute disappointment. They state that the reader "require no knowledge of calculus, only College Algebra" yet they go through the theories with little to no explanation, and assuming that the reader knows caculus. The book does a pitiful job of explaining chained matrix multiplication, graph theory, dynamic programming, Diskstra's algorithms, et al. It's NOT the best book, we're using the 3rd edition and it is just as bad as the 2nd edition. There are tons of typos and errors alike.

I'm currently taking a course on Algorithm Analysis, and we're using this as our textbook. At first glance this book seems like a tome of information, and extremely thorough. However, once you start to read it you realize exactly how many errors and typos made it all the way to the Third Edition. On the bright side, the appendices cover discrete mathematics very well.

Here's two samples of the errors that have poked through:

pg. 7, has a grievous error in exchangesort:

for(i=0; i<=1;i++)

That's obviously incorrect. It should be i<=(n-1).

pg. 50, recursive binary search:

else if(x == array[mid])

Again, that should be else if(x <= array[mid]), otherwise the code does the same thing as the previous if statement.

So frankly, skip this book. It contains errors that even a neophyte programmer ought to be able to catch.

This is a excellent book for use in a first course of algorithms using C++ or other similar programming language. Covers usefull themes in a easy way.

In fact, it doesn't have C++ but C pseudocode; other than that, the book is marvelous in terms of being an introduction to the analysis of algorithms. The code is very clear and almost always has commentaries where they should be. Another point to remark is that the authors frequently encourage students to deepen in advanced concepts by presenting concrete bibliography. A very good reference book, I must say.

A very good text[book] either for students or teachers.
Well written, and easy to understand. The concepts of
algorithms are well presented.

I like very much this textbook and so happy to discover it.
I teach algorithms for computer science students at Qatar
university, I used many different textbooks, but really
this is the one that I admire.

However, I regret to not have an instructor's manual for
it. I encourge deeply the authors to prepare one.

I read this book at my school's library. It's a pretty good book for beginners attempting to learn Algorithms on their own. There's a lot of code snippets to go with the text. Recommended for anybody looking for an algorithms book suitable for beginners.

Received the book in just four days...so it was prompt service and the book was in excellent condition when it arrived. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with the service provided and the condition of the book.