Fundamentals of Algorithmics

by Gilles Bassard

This is an introductory-level algorithm book. It includes worked-out examples and detailed proofs. Presents Algorithms by type rather than application. Includes structured material by techniques... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0133350681
• ISBN13: 9780133350685
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.2" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

The most outstanding book in my entire collection

I took the class IFT2121 given by Gilles Brassard, and thanks that we had book which is so well done and complete. People misunderstand sometime the nature of this book. This book is not about providing algorithm recipe but to teach you the methods used to analyze the performance of algorithms. Gilles Brassard is an outsanding teacher, he is very sharp, he knows his stuff inside out, and his book is a master piece!

Great as a supplement or reference, not as an introduction

This is a good book - far better than an average rating of 2 stars would suggest. However, i think a big reason for such a rating is that it's supposed to be an introductory textbook (as claimed by the authors in the preface), and from that point of view, it leaves much to be desired. The presentation is such that it can be difficult for first-timers to follow, and many topics are simply absent, e.g. network flows. On the other hand, those already familiar with the material will find it quite readable and handy as a reference or for brushing up. The authors choose to present algorithms from a design point of view, ie greedy approach, divide-and-conquer, bactracking, dynamic programming etc instead of the traditional way of presenting algorithms for solving a class of problems, e.g searching, sorting, graph algorithms and so on. While this is good for those who're already familiar with the traditional approach and also offers a unified view of problem-solving strategies in Algorithmics, it is decidedly easier for the beginning student to have (e.g) all sorting algorithms in one place than to discover that they're scattered across different chapters. All algorithms are presented in pseudocode, and are thus have no programming language dependencies. A healthy number of solved examples have been provided, and unsolved problems are numerous. In summary, i think this is quite a good book for practitioners, researchers and those doing an advanced course in Algorithms, whereas it may not be suitable for an introductory course (except, perhaps, as a supplement).

What's with all these negatived reviews?

This book is written in a simple style: algoritm class description, related proofs, examples, variations and exemples. Because of this clean approach, you can basically read it in a couple days if you have the necessary background knowledge, and in a couple weeks if not. I strongly recommend this book to everyone who are calling themselves "programers", either graduated or not, it will teach/remind them what are the elegant fundamental algorithmic approches to common problems; it's seems that today's software could use a bit of this elegance. As for all the negative reviews, I'm astonished. I own several books on the subject, and I find this one the easiest to read, no question. It must be some sort of personal vendetta against the author, a failed undegraduate course with this book as teaching material, or some other personal reason; that's probably why this/these person(s) whish(es) to remain anonymous.

Fundamentals of Algorithmics

One of the few books organising algorithms around design techniques instead of application areas (see "Algorithms" from Sedgevick). Though both approachs have pros and cons, I've found the former most convenient for people learning to design algorithms. Many problems admit several solutions depending on the design tecnique involved. This fact is emphasized by the authors.The book is self-contained, plainly written, so that an undergraduate can read it after taking a prerequisite course on programming.It's also mathematically rigorous, while mantaining simplicity. This allows analysis of algorithms to be really "analytic" (no more guessing the solution to a recurrence relation).One main drawback (certainly usual) is the lack of excercise solutions.

It's a very good book for Algorithmic Techniques

I don't agree with the other reviews. This book is a serious one and it is a "smooth" version of "Algorithms: Theory and Practice" from the same authors, which has a 5 stars rate. The book don't teach how to program, but the main kind of techniques in algorithm design (Greedy, Divide and Conquer and Dynamic Programing techniques, and others like Backtracking, Probabilistic Algorithms, etc.). I teach a course of Algorithm Design with this book (having the Sedgewick and Cormen books like additional very good references) and I think that it is a very instructive course on algorithmics (but NOT in programming, of course).