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I am reading lot of algorithms books lately due to rekindled interest (the last time I am this motivated is during my high school days!) and the common advice is to read CLRS (C for Cormen) but the book is a 500 pound gorilla and it is neck deep in detailed Math. Imagine my delight when I stumbled on "Algorithms Unlocked" by Cormen - I call this book Baby Cormen. My background is in software engineering and I am paying my dues for 10+ years. I like math but am not in touch with it for many years; though I am currently taking steps to remedy it. So that’s the context. Here goes my review:
Pros
1. It has a section on "Algorithms on Strings". Out of many books that I perused (Algorithms in a nutshell, Skiena, Eva Tardos etc.), this book, CLRS, Algorithms by Sedgwick has a section on Strings. There are dedicated books on String algorithms but "string problems" appear practically in almost every software engineer's career that I think any general algorithms book should cover a basic portion of it. This one does.
2. Chatty but neither boring nor tedious. It uses enough words to convey the concept efficiently.
3. It contains math for sections on complexity but algorithm concepts are supported with pictures, sample algorithm runs. One just needs to follow logical arguments as it is explained.
4. All the chapters except last few pages in chapter 9, 10 are gems.
5. The length of the book is ~222. This cannot be overstated. The faster u reach towards the end of the book the better you will feel about yourself and the more you will like to finish it.
6. Pretty good paper quality and print. Love this about MIT press.
7. Price is cheap.
8. No exercises. Yes this is a good thing actually. It would have affected the flow of the book. If you need exercises then go to Big Cormen (CLRS).
Cons
1. Typos/Errors. 14 when I counted. I actually thought it cannot have any because some reviewer here said it was copyedited by someone who is a stickler for perfection so I didn't bother to check the errata page (my bad but only 14 errata’s is still impressive) until I stumbled on a possible typo (it turns out it is not) and tried to contact the author by going to the book's website. One should make sure to correct it in the book before reading.
2. Chapter 9 - section on LZW compression/decompression could have been little clearer. Chapter 10 - section on Hamiltonian cycle to Hamiltonian path reduction, subset sum reduction could have been little clearer because the explanation had more gaps in logic than usual. The author did say in the preface that he couldn't control getting into more details near the very end of the book but I felt the explanation was unclear because it is rushed than more technical details are employed.
All in all this is a solid book that treats you as an intelligent human being than a space alien or a brick.
- Series: The MIT Press
- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: MIT Press (March 1, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0262518805
- ISBN-13: 978-0262518802
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Customer Reviews: 36 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#495,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #309 in Programming Algorithms
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