Customer Reviews

Primes and Programming

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This is definitely an introduction, but since "introduction" is in the title of the book, you've been warned. The book is really about number theory, the programming part is very basic and much of it left to the reader/student as exercises. The programs are written in "old school" Pascal, which was the pedagogical language of choice in the pre-Internet era (I was schooled in the pre-internet era myself). This book takes little account of algorithmic efficiency (although, it does show how to get double-precision arithmetic out of Pascal). If you're looking for an approach from scratch, this is your book. If you're a mathematician looking for an emphasis on programming and algorithms get Hans Riesel's "Prime Numbers and Computer Methods for Factorization" -- a more advanced book. If you're a programmer, much of the material (and sometimes more) is also in O'Reilly's "Algorithms in...[Perl, C, C++]" in the "number theory" chapters and would make better additions to your library.

This is a book to enjoy. Learn a great deal of Number theory and almost everything about prime numbers, including topics like cryptography. The Pascal programs are clear, and will help you to learn the theory in an enjoyable way. I would expect to have a second edition implemented in Java or C++, with additional code for multiprecision arithmetic. A great book to have, if you are new to number theory. However, if you are looking for a broader coverage, the right book is "Introduction to Number Theory with computing" by RBJT Allenby and E.J. Redfern. If you do not care computing, and want to have in-depth knowledge on Number theory, "An Introduction to Number Theory" by Hardy and Wright is the best (though it is not easy-readable!). If you want to have a short but complete introduction to Number theory, get "Higher Mathematics" by Davenport.

The book is a practical introduction to Number Theory and the exercises are gradual and accesibles. I will be pleased if in a next edition a diskette with the programs is included.