Java Algorithms [Paperback]

Scott Robert Ladd (Author)

Book Description

Series: Java Masters | Publication Date: December 22, 1997

This work shows how Java can implement important data structures and algorithms to create quick, efficient and professional applications. The CD-ROM contains the compiled source code from the book, the Sun Microsystem Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.2 and a trial version of Visual J++ and other third-party Java tools from Symantec and IBM. The book makes the comparison between C++ and Java, and explains the theory in practical ways. Scott Robert Ladd is the author of "C++ Templates and Tools", "C++ Components and Algorithms", "C++ Techniques and Applications" and "Active Visual J++.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Have you ever muddled through a Java programming job knowing that if you only had sufficient time, you could find a more efficient way to complete the project? Java Algorithms contains dozens of highly practical and efficient routines ready for insertion into your programs.

Author Scott Robert Ladd brings you lots of old friends in new clothes. The quicksort, a staple of C, Pascal, and other languages, appears here in Java, as do the Shell sort and other popular sorts. (The bubble sort, friend of high school computer-science students everywhere, is mercifully left out.) You'll also find math algorithms (including a cool polynomial class), GUI layout tools, data trees, serialization, compression, and other topics--all explained in text that's a pleasure to read.

The author's writing strengths become most evident when he explains string-search algorithms. Ladd walks you through the behavior of his code step by step, making things clear without making you feel as if you are being spoken down to. All the code in the book appears on the companion CD-ROM, ready to be used piecemeal or included in programs as the coyote.* packages. --David Wall

From the Back Cover

Wring new levels of performance from Java!

I've written several books about algorithm design, and this book/CD-ROM bring you my experience in the form of several Java packages. You can get good performance from Java; a well-written Java applet will outperform a poorly designed C++ program. That's what this book is all about.
--The Author.

Scott Robert Ladd is renowned for writing portable and efficient code in C and C++. Now he has translated his ideas into Java and delivers them to you in this innovative, easy-to use package. Whether you're already migrating from C++ to Java, or beginning to explore the possibilities, use this book and CD-ROM to:

• Get a quick handle on the code differences between Java and C/C++
• Understand how Java implements key data structures and algorithms
• Maximize Java's powerful array of tools for developing user interfaces
• Create quick-full-featured, professional applications and applets
• Speed up applet performance, which varies dramatically from platform to platform
• Discover a star chart plotter Java application written by the author

Additional time-savers include complete applets and applications that demonstrate the packages developed by the author, as well as all of Ladd's compiled source code right on the CD-ROM.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 484 pages
• Publisher: Osborne Publishing (December 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0079136966
• ISBN-13: 978-0079136961
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,335,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars do not buy this book, February 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Java Algorithms (Paperback)

This book is the worst Java book I've ever read. I think it should really be called "How C++ programmers program Java." The "algorithms" are nothing more than the most trivial versions, and the author's style is to give the code and then say what HE did. There are no examples of good code. It is obvious that the author doesn't really know what he is talking about.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Builds Bad Programming Techniques, September 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Java Algorithms (Paperback)

This book TROUBLES ME. The author has no concept of good algorithms and data structures. Example: he builds a queue using arrays instead of Linked Lists. The array sets a limit on the amount of structures you can store in the queue. If you use a Linked List Object you can have unlimited storage and better overall performance and OO design. Try this book instead: "Data Structures & Algorithms in Java". This is a much better text. It is more of a computer science text but written so the reader can absorb all of the concepts.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair treatment, February 28, 2002

By 

Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Java Algorithms (Paperback)

In this book, written at the time of JDK 1.1.1, the author attempts to convey to the reader that the Java programming language is not just for creating applets, but can be used for networking, interprocess communications, scientific programming, and for creating portable graphic interfaces. It is reasonably well-written, but the author should have spent more time on the performance issues in writing stand-alone code in Java. He makes the claim that a Java program can outperform an equivalent program in C++, but he offers no benchmark comparisons to substantiate his claim. This is particularly for his discussion of matrix algebra in Java. His general discussion of algorithms to do various tasks is pretty well-written, and a reader could gain insight into the workings of these algorithms by the perusal of this book.

The author also gives hints on how to improve the performance of Java programs. In the discussion of sorting for example, he explains how to remove recursion in order to implement an iterative scheme for sorting, thus enhancing performance. He is also careful to point out that the presence of primitive types in Java, which cannot be derived from the Object class. Thus it is often required, as the author explains, to create methods to convert arrays of primitive types to arrays of wrapper classes.

The author's discussion of numerical applications in Java is fairly well-written, as he discusses the various numeric data types in Java, and how it does conversions between numeric types. And he points out some of the virtues that Java has in manipulating arrays, one example being that manual range checking need not be done. He does give Java code for the Fast Fourier Transform, but it is too slow to be of practical interest in serious real-world applications.

A reader with background in computational biology and genome sequence analysis might find the author's discussion on Java strings of interest. Java has been used in biological applications, but the software language PERL continues to be dominant in these applications. The author develops explicitly algorithms for string searching in chapter 3, and these could be adapted to biological applications if one is so inclined.

Another topic of interest in the book is the one on high-performance containers. The author recognizes that Java does not provide for the standard data structures like queues and linked lists, so he spends a fair amount of time developing various types of containers.

The author also introduces evolutionary programming and its implementation in Java. This is done via the construction of finite state machines, and the evolutionary algorithm calculates a fitness value for each finite state machine based on its performance. A fun example dealing with robot examples is provided in Java. In addition, a very interesting discussion (with Java source code) is given for random number generation.

The discussions on serialization and serialization in random access files might be useful to the reader who is attempting to write network and database applications in Java or writing JavaBeans applications. There is also an entire chapter devoted to implementing (in Java) the BTree data structure. I was not aware of this data structure before reading the book, so this chapter was interesting reading.

By far the most pleasureful part of the book was the discussion on stellar cartography and star map plotting, from both a personal and educational standpoint. Instructors of astronomy or earth science could easily use the Java implementation in the classroom to illustrate the relevant concepts to students.