Understanding Computation: From Simple Machines to Impossible Programs 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Tom Stuart (Author)

14 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1449329273

ISBN-10: 1449329276

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Finally, you can learn computation theory and programming language design in an engaging, practical way. Understanding Computation explains theoretical computer science in a context you’ll recognize, helping you appreciate why these ideas matter and how they can inform your day-to-day programming.

Rather than use mathematical notation or an unfamiliar academic programming language like Haskell or Lisp, this book uses Ruby in a reductionist manner to present formal semantics, automata theory, and functional programming with the lambda calculus. It’s ideal for programmers versed in modern languages, with little or no formal training in computer science.

Understand fundamental computing concepts, such as Turing completeness in languages
Discover how programs use dynamic semantics to communicate ideas to machines
Explore what a computer can do when reduced to its bare essentials
Learn how universal Turing machines led to today’s general-purpose computers
Perform complex calculations, using simple languages and cellular automata
Determine which programming language features are essential for computation
Examine how halting and self-referencing make some computing problems unsolvable
Analyze programs by using abstract interpretation and type systems

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Editorial Reviews

Book Description

From Simple Machines to Impossible Programs

About the Author

Tom is a computer scientist and programmer, and the founder of Codon, a digital product consultancy in London. He works as a consultant, mentor and trainer, helping companies to improve the quality and clarity of their approach to creating software products, usually on the web. He has lectured on optimizing compilers at the University of Cambridge, co-organizes the Ruby Manor conference, and is a member of the London Ruby User Group.

Product details

File Size: 4223 KB
Print Length: 334 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (May 15, 2013)
Publication Date: May 15, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00CT3C4IM
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,473 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #303 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Information Theory
- #845 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Computers & Technology > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development
- #2221 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Computers & Technology > Computer Science

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Emmanuel Oga

From finite state machine to turing machines, in a digstible, example driven way

May 30, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Most books talking about automatons, regular expressions and related subjects are made really hard to digest by have a very formal, mathematical approach and not being straightforward to apply into programming concepts. This book does have depth but keeps it simple by showing you actual code instead of just mathematical symbols. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will probably come back to it soon.

4 people found this helpful

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Christian M. Stead

Great introductory text on theory of computation

August 18, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book won't give you the deep mathematical underpinnings of computation, but it provides a great starting point for understanding how computer scientists think about computation and could provide a solid auxiliary reference for CS students touching computation for the first time.

One person found this helpful

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C. L. Beard

This is one of the finer books on computer science you will find

May 14, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is one of the finer books on computer science you will find. Especially since it was published in the last few years I find that particularly remarkable as most of the classic had been written in the 70's or 80's. Not saying this is a classic yet, but well worth the read.

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Marcel

Great Practical Introductory Book

August 10, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I've gone through the first part of the book, and it is great up until now.
There are some code examples in this book that are not explained and are hard to understand, maybe the book would be better off without examples the author does not plan to explain adequately, or code examples that do not help the reader understand the subject being treated.

Most of the code examples that are not thoroughly explained are *extra* content, but I think they degrade the quality of the book instead of improve it.

5 people found this helpful

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Anonymouss

Excellent job at breaking down complex topics into Ruby vs ...

May 29, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Excellent job at breaking down complex topics into Ruby vs mathematical proofs. Some sections are a bit dry, but that's to be expected. I would recommend.

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July 2, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A fantastic introduction to the theory of computation for the working programmer.Covers topics like writing a programming language,automata theory etc in a really accessible manner and uses ruby to demonstrate the principles. Must read !.

10 people found this helpful

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October 21, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book does what it promises to do - take the reader from the most basic simplifications of computers (finite automata), through more complex simplifications (Turing machines) to reasoning about 'impossible' problems (The quotation marks are added because these problems will surely be solved one day or another by some clever fellow with too much brain activity and spare time, but are impossible for now). I really enjoyed the fact that the author was able to use Ruby code to illuminate his examples, which (me being a programmer) made them much easier to understand (easer being the operative word, this s*** is still complex as balls) than the mathematical notation commonly used by textbooks.

However, I feel that Mr. Stuart (much like all other authors of complicated, technical books I've read) falls into the trap of following a very predefined path for his line of reasoning, which leaves the reader with the feeling (at least, this was the case for me) that this is 'all planned out' and that there's a lot of information he intentionally leaves out or doesn't mention (this might not even be the case, but it still FEELS like this - which is a problem). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the book, and if you still don't know what I'm talking about then feel free to shake your head condescendingly.

Now, my interest in this particular field of computer science is cursory at best, which might not make me the ideal fit for Mr. Stuart's target audience, so if you get a major hard-on when syntax trees are generated (seek help) then you might get more out of this book than me.

That being said, he managed to peak my interest in concepts I felt were mind-numbingly boring in university (such as non-deterministic and deterministic finite automata), so kudos to Mr. Stuart for that. This book is a possible gold mine for the more interested pupil, especially when considering the problem of Turing completeness (in which he completely lost me, mid-chapter I put the book down and went to the fridge and rewarded myself with a beer for my efforts), reasoning about programs and (wait for it) generation of syntax trees.

All in all a good read, if you're into this sort of thing.

9 people found this helpful

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Most recent customer reviews

Patrick Huffer

Hard to follow along with the source code

I want to be interested in the material, but unless you're already pretty adept at Ruby there is basically no explanation of how to run the provided sample code, which itself is...Read more

Published on January 8, 2016

Amazon Customer

Three Stars

Tedious

Published on September 12, 2015

WD McDaniel

Poorly written and unneccesarily complicated

This book was very poorly written, confusing and badly organized. Rather than presenting computation from a logical, evolutionary point of view, this book tried to be a collection...Read more

Published on January 16, 2014

James

Easy and engaging introduction to computational ideas

Rather than anything like a textbook, Understanding Computation is a guided tour of some of the most interesting and fundamental aspects of computation, presented in a way that...Read more

Published on September 13, 2013

Sean Williamson

A fantastic Book

Tom Stuart takes us on a journey through computation theory in a
thoroughly engaging manner.

I am new to the field of computers and
programming; I have spent...Read more

Published on July 31, 2013

David Hinson

Of little practioner value

If this was fairly titled it would be "Intro to Ruby with Applications in Automata". If you want to learn Ruby this is your book.Read more

Published on July 18, 2013

R. Friesel Jr.

the computer science book for non-computer science software engineers

Despite the fact that there's no _real_ reason to be apologetic, I also haven't yet reached the point in my career as a software developer where I've stopped apologizing for the...Professional JavaScript for Web Developers Read more

Published on July 6, 2013

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