Art of Computer Programming, The, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set
Product Description
Knuth’s multivolume work, widely recognized as the definitive description of classical computer science, is now available in an attractive, boxed set. The three volumes included in this set have each been revised recently to reflect developments in the field. As earlier editions clearly demonstrated, they comprise an invaluable resource in programming theory and practice for students, researchers, and practitioners alike. Countless readers have spoken about the pro… More >>
Related posts:
Knuth covers th emost obscure aspects of computing science with a pedants zeal. The pointless waffleing prowse hides little or no understanding of computing in a modern enviroment. Any man who uses TEX, let alone invents it deserves not our admiration but our sincerest pity.
If you want a book that actually helps you with a task rather than dresses up the subject in obscure techno babble then get a Nutshell guide from O’Reilly.
Rating: 1 / 5
Yes, using MIX is all wrong. High-level language psuedo-code (not fictionaly assembly language) that’s intuitively obvious would save us all so much trouble. But, why not a “TAoCP in FORTRAN-90″, a “TAoCP” in APL, a “TAoCP” in COBOL, a “TAoCP” in BASIC, a “TAoCP” in LISP, a “TAoCP” in ALGOL, a “TAoCP in Ada”, a “TAoCP in C”, a “TAoCP in Java”, etc. ?? Think of the money to be made re-selling it in every possible langauge if there’s a market for it? I might even do it myself and make some $. LOL. Actually, there’s no need for a Visual Basic version, etc. because language specific I/O, etc. is not the issue. This set is about art, about *algorithms*, so most of the high level language specific aspects are irrelevant (except for recursion, details like garbage collection, inheritance, polymorphism…).
Equally irrelevant is worrying about efficient memory usage and the like. Today, memory, disk space, etc. are not scarce resources. While (being from the old school) I don’t believe in wasteful code, all people really want today out of algorithms is optimal speed. Time and CPU power are the only resources that are still constraints (aside from transmission speed). Discussions about sort algorithms which optimize for anything else (memory space, etc.) are pointless if they aren’t also the most time efficient. We don’t care! Also, unless you work for the US Census or Social Security Administration, you don’t care about hardware devices like magnetic tape drives, so those algorithms are just theoretical mind games. Anyway, please rewrite this set in a practical high level psuedo-code with time optimal algorithms only. But only the timeless (pun-intended) universally necessary algorithms that are always going to be useful. Stuff like searching, data structures, hashing, trade offs between techniques. In the future all people will want are
parallel processing algorithms for distributed environments and perhaps eventually quantum computing algorithms for a language built on a CPU which only processes QBits.
One final thing: wasn’t there originally supposed to be 7 volumes and only these 3 were completed? What ever happened to the rest? [Update: After 32 years, Knuth is finally dribbling out volume 4.]
Rating: 4 / 5
For anyone who is new to computer programming and wants to get a indepth background of its history and evolution, I DO NOT recommend this book. When I received it I was very excited because it came in three nicely bound hard cover volumes. But, when I looked inside, all I saw was massive amounts of mathematical equations. I felt like I was reading a mathematics book and it was completely unreadable, overwhelming, & intimidating. I guess, being a novice, I expected something much more readable. So, I blame myself but for anyone like me who thinks the title of the book will give them an enjoyable “read” on computer programming…forget it.
Rating: 1 / 5
Having seen loads of reviews about this book being essential for any computer programmer, I am disappointed to learn that this actually means only Machine Language programmers. Not C, not C++, not Fortran, Cobol or Delphi…Not even Basic.
The author has seen it fit to ignore all popular programming languages to use for his examples’ code. Instead, he uses a meta-Assembly language which he has made up out of thin air, for this important purpose.
I can’t tell you how p***** off I am not to be able to understand a damn word of his coded algorithms. The excuse of being able to go ‘low level’ inside the computers memory and such is too thin, I would happily pay twice the marked price if the examples were in C, C++ or any language higher than this indecipherable pseudo-ASM!
It is such a shame that this is the case because the books are of a very high quality indeed, the author has a rare talent for conveying these fantastic concepts using plain english, but I’m at a loss as to how to implement tham on an actual computer. Which rather defeats the point of this set.
And to make things worse, its not even a standard ASM dialect, not even close.
Unless you are an ASM god (at least you shouldn’t have any trouble understanding and ‘porting’ his pretend code) and/or Masters degree mathematician, I would steer clear of this one.
Why why why not C++, Mr Knuth, please tell me!
Rating: 3 / 5
I do not use to speak English, but this book give a lot of theorems that cannot be understanded if we don’t investigate by ourselves.
That make me a question: why I take a book if I need its bibliography to use it? Obviously, it could be I’m not too intelligent for this book. But I prefer the first tomes, where everyone can understand slowly or not every quiz.
Despite of all, this book offers us solutions in a pack (as only Knuth can do) to program the best querys when invariant is not iterable.
Rating: 3 / 5