Customer Reviews

Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Run, don't walk to get this book!

Remember that numerical analysis class you took, in which you came away really understanding nothing besides how to plug-and-chug? Those "black box" numerical integration routines with "magic" coefficients that came from who knows where? Did you ever get the relationship between z transforms and "backward differences?"

This book explains all this and more in a clear, readable, and dare I say, even entertaining presentation (I read it in one sitting cover-to-cover, which is typically impossible for a technical book.)

Over the years, I've purchased quite a few technical reference books. Most seem to be weighty self-congratulatory monuments to the authors' personal ability to present fantastically-terse-yet-look-how-rigorous mathematical proofs. Maybe 1 in 100 is actually written in a down-to-earth, accessible way without pages of dense jargon and overly complicated formulations.

"Math Toolkit for Real-time Programming" is simply the most well-written numerical programming book I've ever come across, and perhaps one of the best technical books on any subject, period. I wish all books were this readable.

Do yourself a favor and get this book ASAP.

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2008 Update: As I go back and read this review 6 years later, it sounds a bit over the top, but I _still_ really like this book. It's rare to find a technical book that can communicate the "common sense" behind mathematical concepts and algorithms without requiring the reader to have a Math PhD. Does the book address every possible topic in numerical computing? No, it is not a comprehensive reference, but the topics it DOES cover are very well explained indeed. I DEFY you to find a better explanation anywhere of the basic techniques used in numerical integration. I just wish Dr. Crenshaw would write more books and explain other stuff I use but never really "got" in EE class.

A few of the reviewers complained about the relative uselessness of the included programming material -- I would say their comments are largely on target (although the author clearly states that the purpose of the material is to illustrate the frequency of "gotchas" in even the most simplistic of programs); however, the true value in this book is not the programming examples, it's the insight given into the techniques. Dr. Crenshaw has a passion for communicating the intuition behind the methods (I also encourage you to check out his columns in Embedded Systems Programming.) Finding someone who can pull that off successfully is rare. The numerical techniques he discusses (doing raw math without the benefit of library routines) are broken down to their basics and completely described in a manner I have seen in no other book. The reason I wrote this review is because I _understood_ a lot more after reading this book than any others covering similar material (Acton; Ralston & Rabinowitz; standard BSEE/CompSci textbooks etc).

I have yet to find a book that explains "complex" math algorithms well and give clear coding examples that follow. This book is no exception. I suppose after reading some of the other reviews, I had high expectations for this book, but it failed to deliver.

My number one complaint about the book is that there are very little or no comments in the code. There are pages of equations and derivations of the equations followed by code of a function. I didn't understand how the code related to the equations. It would have been a tremendous help to put a one line comment next to each section or line of the code referring to an equation number. Many equations deal with variables like x, y, or a. It doesn't help me much when a variable inside of code is called "x". I have no idea of its use or where it came from. It would have been even better if after each section of the math, the author put the line of code it referred to, and after the algortihm was complete, write the whole function down.

Another minor issue I had with the book was that it was written in the first person and the author tried to make humorous remarks throughout. I understand that he was trying to make it fun and while some people may appreciate it, I found it annoying.

The author does not seem to follow his own advice. The book is clearly not written for any one programming language. Most of the code is written in C, but he has references to pascal, c++, and says that fortran is basically a dead language but refers to fortran throughout the book. He makes it a point to state that he has good coding style and has a whole chapter on constants. He #defines One as 1.0 to avoid wasting run time cycles from converting an int to a double. The compiler may do this, but he adds "to take the chance is bad programming practice". I can see his point, but the problem is he never uses defines in his own coding samples when he writes code like double sum = 0;

The book is divided into 3 sections. The first section deals with constants and errors. There was no math and I am an experienced programmer and did not find much use for this.

The second section of the book is about square roots, sin, arctan, and logs. The algorithms seemed ok, and as expected, are probably faster and less precise than the standard library functions of a compiler. I've seen them before and they were not useful to me because many of them required an initial guess to be input. I work with graphics and such a broad range of numbers that I don't have an initial guess and therefore can't use the methods.

The third section deals with numerical calculus and was the major reason I bought the book. I thought the refresher and review of basic calculus was good. It was a bit stale in my mind, so it was nice to read about it again. However, I want to be able to apply the code in the book to real world programming. The key link and understanding of the code as it relates to the equations just wasn't there. Also, I was hoping there would be more code. There are whole chapters that don't have a single line of code written in it.

Nice reference for embedded system programmers If you have the last 10 years of Embedded Systems Programming magazines, then you will already have 80% of the basics covered in this book, but the book is a great reference to read and have handy. Material is expanded and well written, so I'd recommend it for any one working with embedded control systems.

If like me you need to take control over the math library that comes with your compiler then this book is for you. Whether you need more speed, more reliability with a total understanding of what's going on inside your code this book is for you. It is definitely on my top-five for embedded engineering. This is pretty much the stuff they don't teach in university but makes a trememdous performance difference at the project level. Do yourself a favor and get this book, even if it's just for reference... you will need it soon!

It should really be titled "real-time math for dummies". Overall it is a good book despite of the wordiness. The author really aims for people who have no math background; I hope he succeeded. Other people might find the onerous talking down a bit distracting.

Also it is a bit expensive for a book of this kind.

Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming is simply the best focused book on the subject of doing maths on microcontrollers, eg PIC 8051, AVR, PSOC etc with limited resources.

If you write software for an 8 bit micro's then this is the book for you. As it is writen if you want a canned answer then this has less value, but if you want to learn how then this is for you.
It has also been helpful to demistify some math concepts that I never really "got" even after doing an electrical engineering degree!

This book showed some good points. However I felt it is a little bit out of date. The author might know the contents earlier, but he released too late.

Book is good and useful. Rational fraction, Numerical intergration, dynamic simulation and state vector cover in detail. Appreciate your selling.

Contacted customer service for missing CD-ROM attached with book on 2/17/2006, contact person, Durga.A. Yet to receive reply.

This book describes and shows how to calculate mathematical functions to any desired number of bits of accuracy in the minimum possible machine time. It does this by not using the classical infinite series derived in calculus class. It uses approximations derived by the author or from the public domain. Even though I detest computer programming and rarely do it, I found the mathematical aspects of this book good entertainment and mind expanding. It was also refreshing to find a mathematical person who could explain things clearly. My past experience with mathematicians is that they would have trouble teaching a duck how to swim.

"MATH ToolKit for Real Time Programming" provides both education and a functional history. My wife taught school for 30 years. She saw me laughing (or crying) at the memories and started reading the book. Now, two book marks reside in the book. Years ago, I told her that she should teach primary and secondary summer school for computer-nerds. Now, she knows that computer control makes an art of multiple dimensions. Each dimension delivers insights into numeric aspects. This changes numerics control from a dummy-subject into a functional art with functional purposes. Now, she knows that if students learned to apply numeric control arts, they would later prosper when taking functional higher education courses. For one thing, they would exert tremendous- pressure on educational structures to "teach!" The brightest students ask, "What is this used for in the real- world?" The book holds more power than simple

demonstration. It holds years of reality in a changing world. It forces reasoning into the educational system!

"MATH ToolKit for Real Time Programming" moves from the most basic computer arts into functional demonstrations of real-time computer arts. In this transition, most persons eventually lose the thread of communications. For those who wish to gain functional real-time programming abilities, READ-THE-BOOK from cover to cover. In the end, the reader gains a road-map of current art. With this understandable road-map of purposes and devices, you take algebra and calculus classes with a designed goal. These no longer appear as "abstract arts." Go shopping for the curriculum. Interview perspective instructors. Show them Dr. Crenshaw's book. Then, when teaching, they comprehend that this is BUSINESS! You know that it is BUSINESS. Then, they know how and what to teach you for your BUSINESS purposes.

"MATH ToolKit for Real Time Programming" is designed for instructional communications. Buy it, read it, and use it for instructional communications.