Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing

by David Harel and Yishai Feldman

Book Overview

Provides a study of the fundamental theoretical ideas of computing and examining how to design accurate and efficient algorithms.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201192403
• ISBN13: 9780201192407
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
• Length: 425 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A great book!

This book is the most amazing book on algorithms I've read. The concepts are so well explained that moving to "An introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Rivest" will be very easy. I come from a non-computer science background. When I started my coursework in Computer Science I was intimidated with Cormen - (although that IS THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE and a complete text!) until I found Harel. Harel covers ALL the key aspects of algorithms and quite a bit of Data Structs too. He explains all the concepts in a non-mathematical, yet intellectually stimulating manner.One can literally read through the book in single day and gain insight into the most difficult topics like, unsolvable problems, hard problems, NP and NP complete problems. On a side note - I pity those reviewers who returned the masterpiece and took objection to Bible quotes. Please grow up and look at what the book has to offer instead of taking objection to such insignificant embellishments

'The Essence of Theoretical Computer Science'

As the author says, the members of the research community of Computer Science have done their discipline a disservice by not making any special efforts to write accessible accounts of the field, as a result of which the 'layman' still has little idea of what goes on 'under the hood', so to say. He has therefore undertaken the challenging task of presenting the basic ideas underpinning Computer Science in a way that's easy for the general reader to grasp. He sets out to present the essential notions of Algorithms and data structures, Turing machines, Finite state machines, Decidability, Computability, Complexity, NP-completeness, Correctness, Parallel algorithms, Probabilistic algorithms, and more with a minimum of mathematics and yet without sacrificing intellectual rigour - and most admirably, succeeds in doing so. David Harel is a big name in Theoretical Computer Science, one of the leading researchers, and chairman of the Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science. What made my mind up about reading this book were the strongly encouraging remarks on the back cover by Aho & Hopcroft, two of the foremost authors and researchers in the field, who've written some great textbooks themselves. This book presents all the basic fundamental ideas of the theory of computation, using as little maths as possible. Yet, the intellectual rigour is never compromised, which means that the reader truly gets a flavour of how a Computer Scientist thinks, and how much fun it can be. It also shows you how certain problems cannot be solved cheaply while others cannot be solved at all (solved exactly, that is), no matter how much 'computing power' you have - ie theory proves the existence of certain fundamental limits on the problems that we can hope to solve. The writing is exceptionally good - like a true master of his subject, Harel makes concepts seem easy to grasp, though you may find that later on, you realize it was quite a subtle notion that was discussed. The illustations are a great help, and occasional humour provides relief from all the thinking you'll be doing! Even though it's written for the general reader, it is also useful for programmers, systems analysts and designers, software engineers and students, since Harel cuts to the core of the concepts and offers valuable insights into the theory that they might already know. All in all, this book covers amazing ground and is a great introduction to algorithms and the theory of computation. For probing further, you'll need mathematics and textbooks, but this an excellent starting point.

'Theoretical Computer Science at 10,000 feet'

As the author says, the members of the research community of Computer Science have done their discipline a disservice by not making any special efforts to write accessible accounts of the field, as a result of which the 'layman' still has little idea of what goes on 'under the hood', so to say. He has therefore undertaken the challenging task of presenting the basic ideas underpinning Computer Science in a way that's easy for the general reader to grasp. He sets out to present the essential notions of Algorithms and data structures, Turing machines, Finite state machines, Decidability, Computability, Complexity, NP-completeness, Correctness, Parallel algorithms, Probabilistic algorithms, and more with a minimum of mathematics and yet without sacrificing intellectual rigour - and most admirably, succeeds in doing so. David Harel is a big name in Theoretical Computer Science, one of the leading researchers, and chairman of the Applied Mathematics and Computer Science Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science. What made my mind up about reading this book were the strongly encouraging remarks on the back cover by Aho & Hopcroft, two of the foremost authors and researchers in the field, who've written some great textbooks themselves. This book presents all the basic fundamental ideas of the theory of computation, using as little maths as possible. Yet, the intellectual rigour is never compromised, which means that the reader truly gets a flavour of how a Computer Scientist thinks, and how much fun it can be. It also shows you how certain problems cannot be solved cheaply while others cannot be solved at all (solved exactly, that is), no matter how much 'computing power' you have - ie theory proves the existence of certain fundamental limits on the problems that we can hope to solve. The writing is exceptionally good - like a true master of his subject, Harel makes concepts seem easy to grasp, though you may find that later on, you realize it was quite a subtle notion that was discussed. The illustations are a great help, and occasional humour provides relief from all the thinking you'll be doing! Even though it's written for the general reader, it is also useful for programmers, systems analysts and designers, software engineers and students, since Harel cuts to the core of the concepts and offers valuable insights into the theory that they might already know. All in all, this book covers amazing ground and is a great introduction to algorithms and the theory of computation. For probing further, you'll need mathematics and textbooks, but this an excellent starting point.

An easy-to-read, for-all-readers algorithms book

This is a truly magnificent book. It comprehensively covers most of the topics in the analysis and design of alogorithms with no mathematical burden to hamper you from getting through this subjet. Later on, you will most probably need a more intensive and mathmetical-analysis oriented book but be sure this second book will be far more easy to go through after you have have finished the "Algorithmics" book. Enjoy it.

Just a great book !

This book is just fantastic. It gives a perfect introduction to the most important aspects of algorithm design, correctness, complexity, P vs NP, etc. It has solid foundations in the theory, and brings these difficult concepts within reach of the average programmer, in an easily readable style. Kudos to the author.