Books

Books : reviews

Alfred V. Aho, John E. Hopcroft, Jeffrey D. Ullman.
The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms.
Addison Wesley. 1974

(read but not reviewed)

The study of algorithms is at the very heart of computer science. In recent years a number of significant advances in the field of algorithms have been made. These advances have ranged from the development of faster algorithms, such as the fast Fourier transform, to the startling discovery of certain natural problems for which all algorithms are inefficient. These results have kindled considerable interest in the study of algorithms, and the area of algorithm design and analysis has blossomed into a field of intense interest. The intent of this book is to bring together the fundamental results in this area, so the unifying principles and underlying concepts of algorithm design may more easily be taught.

John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, Jeffrey D. Ullman.
Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation: 2nd edn.
Addison Wesley. 2001

(read but not reviewed)

It has been more than 30 years since John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Uliman first published this classic book on formal languages, automata theory, and computational complexity. With this long-awaited revision, the authors continue to present the material in a concise and straightforward manner, now with an eye out for the practical applications along with the mathematics.

This edition has been revised to make it more accessible to today’s students, including the addition of more material on writing proofs, more figures and pictures to convey ideas, sidebars to highlight related material, and a less formal writing style. It includes many new exercises in each chapter to help readers confirm and enhance their understanding of the material.

Features
• Completely rewritten to be less formal, providing more accessibility to undergraduate students
• Emphasizes modern applications of the theory
• Uses numerous figures to help convey ideas
• Provides more detail and intuition for definitions and proofs
• Includes special sidebars to present supplemental material that may be of interest to readers
• Challenges readers with extensive exercises of wide-ranging difficulty levels
• Presents a graphical notation for PDA’s and Turing machines.