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The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science (Paperback)

by A. K. Dewdney (Author) "A program specifies in the exact syntax of some programming language the computation one expects a computer to perform..." (more)
Key Phrases: medial neurons, auxiliary tape, junction labels, New York, Englewood Cliffs, Henry Hazer (more...)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Wonderfully concise discussions . . . full of wit . . . It is nearly the perfect book for the noncomputer scientists who want to learn something about the field."—Nature

"Recommended as a general topics source for anyone interested in computer science. Dewdney's use of unusual and practical examples and illustrations to explain the material makes his very readable prose even better."—Choice

"A useful book of worthwhile diversions."—Computer Books Review
-- Review

Review

"Wonderfully concise discussions . . . full of wit . . . It is nearly the perfect book for the noncomputer scientists who want to learn something about the field."—Nature

"Recommended as a general topics source for anyone interested in computer science. Dewdney's use of unusual and practical examples and illustrations to explain the material makes his very readable prose even better."—Choice

"A useful book of worthwhile diversions."—Computer Books Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (July 15, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805071660
ISBN-13: 978-0805071665
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,736 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
A program specifies in the exact syntax of some programming language the computation one expects a computer to perform. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
medial neurons, auxiliary tape, junction labels, linear bounded automaton, polyhedral scene, noise demon, linear bounded automata, pumping lemma, pushdown automaton, pushdown automata, position evaluator, control vertices, fetch cycle, minimax procedure, tape alphabet, generic transformation, pushdown stack, satisfiability problem, smallest disk, random access machine, finite automaton, partition problem, yes instance, quad tree, unit clauses

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Englewood Cliffs, Henry Hazer, San Francisco, The Art of Computer Programming, Cambridge University Press, Computer Science Press, Elements of the Theory of Computation, Foundations of Computer Science, John Wiley, Monte Carlo, Numerical Recipes, Van Nostrand, Data Structure Techniques, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, References Donald, Stephen Cook

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 42 books:

Digital Logic and Computer Design by M. Morris Mano on 4 pages
Elements of the Theory of Computation (2nd Edition) by Harry Lewis on 4 pages
Foundations of Computer Science: C Edition (Principles of Computer Science Series) by Alfred V. Aho on 4 pages
Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines (Automatic Computation) by Marvin Lee Minsky on 4 pages
Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing by William H. Press on 4 pages

See all 42 books this book cites

2 books cite this book:

Beyond Reason: Eight Great Problems That Reveal the Limits of Science by A. K. Dewdney in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Foundations of Computer Science: C Edition (Principles of Computer Science Series) by Alfred V. Aho in Front Matter

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Introduction to Languages and the Theory of Computation by John Martin

Discusses:

Problem Solving in Automata, Languages, and Complexity by Ding-Zhu Du

Discusses:

Implementation and Application of Automata by Michael Domaratzki

Discusses:

Formal Models of Computation by Arthur Fleck

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	84% buy the item featured on this page: The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science 4.2 out of 5 stars (5) $21.86
	5% buy New Turing Omnibus (New Turning Omnibus : 66 Excursions in Computer Science) 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
	5% buy Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid 4.5 out of 5 stars (254) $15.61
	3% buy The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine 4.6 out of 5 stars (9) $19.79

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews

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4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brain Dessert, April 1, 2003

By	Stephen Rives "Steve" (Kansas City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dewdney is one of the most stimulating writers on applied thinking and computer science that I have had the pleasure to read. Where the standard CS textbooks are most stale, Dewdney is the most provocative. He illuminates the dark corners of abstract thought with practical puzzles and plain language. This book is written in small bite size chapters that grow in complexity around multiple ideas, one being the idea of the state machine (if you don't know what a state machine is, don't fret, Dewdney is here to help). For us programmers, he gives enough information to actually implement the algorithms and explore the universe he envisions. I was able to take two of his pages and use it as a coding exercise that turned out to be quite enjoyable.

The appeal to Dwedney and his book stems from the fact that everything he writes is game-like or puzzle-oriented; while reading him one gets the feeling that an enlightened child is guiding the learned to a new level of thinking. Dewdney takes Computer Science on an enjoyable walk through a park where he ends up teaching the discipline to rethink shortest paths and non-intersecting traversals. What's more amazing about this book is that it is perfectly suited for a coffee table where the uninitiated could accidentally pick it up and join the conversation. That is, a degree in computer science is not a prerequisite to this fascinating read. It is brain dessert.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From 6 to 666 hours to understand, April 10, 2004

By	Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What you get out of the book depends upon how much you want to put into in. A reader of this book, could decide to just understand the general ideas, follow the detailed mathematics, or perhaps program on a computer (for example sorting routines, hashing and the like). Each of the excursions is well covered, sometimes witty, but at times I got bogged-down in the symbols. The chapter on "analog computation" coming in the middle of a book was a welcome relief presenting ideas of sorting, shortest path and minimum trees using spaghetti and strings without mathematics (and would be a good chapter to give to non-computer science friends if they ever make the mistake of asking you what sort of problems you think about). The chapter on neural networks, I thought was also clear. There are also some of the classic computer science problems presented such as the Tower of Hanoi, or "A man ponders how to ferry a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across of river".

The 66 excursions cover a lot of ground, but often return to Turing machines, finite-state machines, and NP-completeness problems. I might have enjoyed more on algorithm analysis, computer languages, and game analysis. Additionally there are new topics since this 1992 publication, such as quantum computing, Bioinformatics, Internet related topics on virus and encrypting, and a raft of social questions including privacy. I hope the "Turing omnibus" refuels for another update.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of the basic ideas, November 5, 2006

By	John Kenyon "Omniphilospher" (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The New Turing Omnibus is a gentle pass over many of the abstract concepts of computer science. It focuses on concepts, so if you want to learn to program in a given language, or if you want to master your Windows or Linux OS, look elsewhere. However, it does review all of the theoretical matters, from automata to logic maps, algorithmic analysis and beyond. It is a great read for a budding Computer Scientist, Electrical Engineer or Mathematician. Ideal readers would be younger students in Math or CompSci who want a gentle introduction to the real underlying concepts that govern all of Computer Science. Definatly a must for all CompSci book shelves.

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