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Author: Thomas H. Cormen
ISBN : B00H4D1W94
New from $21.38
Format: PDF
Download electronic versions of selected books Free Algorithms Unlocked from with Mediafire Link Download LinkFor anyone who has ever wondered how computers solve problems, an engagingly written guide for nonexperts to the basics of computer algorithms.Books with free ebook downloads available Free Algorithms Unlocked
- File Size: 3789 KB
- Print Length: 240 pages
- Publisher: MIT Press (April 22, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00H4D1W94
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,886 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Free Algorithms Unlocked
This is an interesting book. It's halfway between the typical science-book-for-non-scientists and a textbook. Unlike most science books for non-scientists, the author doesn't dumb down the material for the reader; he assumes you're intelligent and are willing to work a bit to understand what he says (including following mathematical arguments with actual equations). In fact, I only bought the book because the author was Cormen; I was familiar with his algorithms textbook (Introduction to Algorithms, better known as CLRS after the initials of the authors), which is absolutely authoritative, so I knew the material would be correct. (Having Julie Sussman, P.P.A., as the proofreader was also a big plus.) Unlike CLRS, this is not a textbook, but rather kind of a "pre-textbook". Its purpose is to whet your appetite, to teach you enough about the material so that you can decide if you want to study it more formally or not. If so, you can go straight to CLRS. If not, at least you'll have learned something. The people who will get the most out of this book are self-taught programmers who have never taken a course in algorithms but who nevertheless need to know this material. (And believe me, if you're a programmer, you _do_ need to know this material, whether you realize it or not.) Non-programmers may find that the book is too technical (especially the last few chapters, which get fairly heavily into topics like number theory and reductions of NP-complete problems). Despite this, I can think of no other book that provides such a clear introduction to the field of algorithms with so few prerequisites. Cormen's explanations are lucid and interesting throughout, and the topics are motivated by real-world applications which often don't find their way into textbook descriptions.
Upon un-boxing, I looked at the back cover photo and thought, "uh-oh, another Ivy League professor who thinks everything is intuitively obvious, and disrespects you if it's not." One of the reasons more Americans don't go into computer science IMHO is that the basics are NOT intuitive, and turning your class into a boot camp - with programming assignments made purposely too time consuming - does nothing but hinder....oh, wait, this is a book review, I digress.
Anyways, this book is NOT that, it's a good book. For example, chapter 2 goes from assuming no knowledge of computer programming to asymptotic notation, and it's actually understandable! I've taken an algorithms class, and although able to muddle through it, I only understood about 1/4 the theoretical part. This book helps fill that void and I have renewed confidence that I will be able to understand the more theoretical aspect to algorithms the next time I encounter them (I'm back in school studying CS at night). I've read this book once, from cover to cover - retaining about 1/2 of it. Now it's a second time with highlighter and notes so that I can retain the book in its entirety.
It's not really a book for the "we're all going to be cyborgs, algorithms rule the world" pop-computing crowd, and I suspect it would take a gifted reader to understand this book if he or she truly had no clue about programming. A computer program algorithm is a different way of looking at the world than most folks are used to. But in the first chapter - presumably the one somebody would thumb through at the book store - the author actually points the reader to a less technical book if this one seems too technical.