Algorithms Books

Pinedo did an excellent job for compiling the stories of scheduling system. For a new researcher/grad student in scheduling issue, this is the book that you need -before jump to library and search through all journals. The organization is slightly complicate. So readers may need to prepare their study plan before going through the book from cover to cover. I don't own this book, still; just read it from the library. This book deserves 5 or even 6 stars if the price is more affordable. I wish I have it when got a real job after graduation.

Pinedo's book is an excellent reference for almost all problems in machine scheduling. The author is very economic with words and yet the explanations are incredibly clear. I use it for a graduate course in Scheduling that I teach. I often find myself referring to it whenever I need to review some particular class of scheduling problems. There is a chapter on metaheuristics that explains how these methods work - this is a bonus given that the book concentrates on theoretically rigorous methods. What I really like is the fact that step-by-step descriptions of many algorithms are provided, which can be used directly to write computer programs. The interested reader will find results related to structures of many scheduling problems. Overall this is a great book for teaching and research reference purposes. I have read two other texts on scheduling and I must say that this is by far the best.

De Micheli's book is the most complete reference I know for the aspiring tool-builder,or for the tool-user who wants to know more of what's inside the design and synthesis tools at her desk.

The first hundred pages or so lay out mathematical basics. Graph theory pervades later discussion, so it gets a thorough review in this early section. There's also a little about boolean logic - not the kids' stuff, but a variety of representations, plenty to get the reader's mind set into mathematical orientation of the rest of the book.

Part II, chapters 4-6 are, for me, the real meat of the presentation. They deal with the higher, architectural levels of synthesis, with a strong discussion of scheduling of shared resources. This book predates modern system-on-chip design, so it doesn't get to the level of on-chip busses and networks. The datapath and resource management issues are just as important today as when this book was written, though. And, even if it omits references from the ten-plus years since its writing, it gives today's reader a solid preparation for creating tools on the cutting edge of system synthesis.

The remaining chapters, although thorough and competent, are not in the center of my interests. They deal at length with decomposition of logic and control into gate-level constructs. De Micheli's discussion goes far beyond freshman logic design since, as he points out, "Most classical methods are not practical for circuits of usual size." Chapter 10 goes beyond classic and/or decomposition, and well into the quirks and limitations of real cell libraries. FPGAs are mentioned only briefly - understandable, since they had not acquired the importance given them by the decade-plus of technology shifts since the book was written. A modern successor to this book would probably have a lot more to say about FPGA-based implementation, and would probably address placement and routing issues that De Micheli had no need to address.

Despite its 1994 copyright date, this book is still current and relevant. It gives its reader a broad and rigorous start on industrial-strength synthesis. I recommend this highly to anyone seriously involved in creating tools for logic and system design.

//wiredweird

Initially I was surprised to find no reviews for this book, considering the fact that it is widely used as a text in the schools. This book was a recommended text for my graduate course in "Electronic Design Automation". I have read the text, as well as, solved few problems in the exercises. Based on these qualifications, I think this book is very good. It starts with the basics and goes onto explain the advanced algorithms used in design automation. It gives a comprehensive coverage of the subject. For avid problem solvers, the exercises present a challenging oppurtunity. I highly recommend this book for any student of digital circuit design. But, advanced readers may find some topics (especially, formal methods) missing in this book.

This book is a delight! If only it had been available during those less than interesting lectures on electromagnetic theory..........

Here, the reader can simulate almost any combination of magnets, conductors and external fields and visualize the result in a number of different ways. So this book and its accompanying software will find use in grade school, universities and industry. The visual impact of the approach used by John Beeteson should prove inspirational to younger students. I would recommend that any teacher involved in this subject should buy this book and try it out.

I have used the software on a W98 notebook computer and on a powerful dual processor NT machine. It works just fine in both cases.

This book provides a no-nonsense introduction to the ideas and concepts of magnetic field visualisation. Electromagnetics is a large and complex field and, as such, can be difficult to obtain an intuitive grasp of. This book presents the basic ideas of magnetic field analysis in a simple and orderly manner with examples to demonstrate the important fundamental concepts. This makes it an ideal companion for more rigourous texts on the subject that go into greater detail where necessary.

The use of numerical analysis tools is widely regarded as essential for more than the simplest of geometries. Frequently these tools require a substantial knowledge in order to be able to apply them to the problem at hand. With the use of the author's visualisation of numerical solvers in action the user is able to understand how the computation process develops in solving in 2D a mathematical representation of the field problem. This understanding is essential if the reader wishes to progress to the more challenging 3D simulation environment, especially for those creating rather than just applying the simulation software.

Overall I found the book useful as a means of introducing the subject and would recommend it to students in their last year of school or as an introductory text in undergraduate studies. In addition to students of Physics and Electrical Engineering, the underlying concepts covered are similar to those for mechanical analysis (stress, strain, distortion) and computational fluid dynamics, including heat flow problems. Thus students in the other Engineering disciplines will find something useful in the book and especially the accompanying software.

This is a very good tutorial or survey for a freshman on Optical Networking. However, it has three drawbacks. First, it only talks about Optical WAN while too little contents about Optical Lan or WAN, such as GE and RPR. Second, it does not discuss much about GMPLS and OAM.Third, English is not very good, two many repeated sentence. If you are an expert, don't touch it. It you are a freshman like me, be patient.

I have had used this book as a textbook for a course taught by one of the authors, Dr Mohan Gurusamy. For sure, this book certainly gives the reader a good review of the recent development in WDM research. In particular, some of the materials cover papers that were published in IEEE conferences like INFOCOM, and major networking journals such as ToN and JSAC. As a student, it has accelerated my understanding of WDM technologies, and, as an engineer, the mathematical models and algorithms presented in the book are useful to me. This book is a must companion for research studies in WDM.
Any reader with some background in linear programming and queueing theory sould be able to enjoy this book tremendously.

If any book is being worshipped for it's content on Algorithms in Academia, then it is this book. I have used this book both in my undergraduate and my Masters and definitely the best in the field.

But, I personally think the topics covered are complex to begin with. So, it takes this book and couple of books for reference to understand the topics completely. If you want to develop new efficient algorithms, then this is the book to begin with. Over all a very good book. Would definitely recommend it.

This book is must have for any software programmer. It is one of the best book I had ever had. It has many mathematical concepts and ppl who are mathematical geeks with software skills will love this book even more like me. This was the first book i bought from Used book section and I am extremely satisfied with the condition. I was quite skeptical when I was buying the book, but the sellers are really good with the what they promised. I am totally impressed and i really appreciate it.
Thanks Guys.

I used this book for a graduate level Algorithms course, and I really liked it. It is packed full of content on a wide range of topics. While this book does provide some high-level implementations of algorithms in pseudo-code, you will not find any examples of how to program algorithms in this book. That's really not what this book is meant for anyways.

I found the reading to be easier than Knuth on similar topics, but you still need to have sufficient mathematical background in order to keep up (statistics, discrete math, some calculus). Also, unlike many technical books I've read recently, I did not find any mistakes, not even a typo.

Some people are not aware that the MIT Open Courseware website has some excellent free video course lectures that use this book. I highly recommend at least viewing the first three or four of those lectures if you are new to this topic because they compliment this book very well. Make sure you understand the first four chapters of this book before moving on to other topics.

Also, since it had been a while since I had the math as an undergraduate, I was relieved to learn that this book had several appendices that provided a review of the math topics required by the book.

The only negative about the book is that it does not provide answers to any of the exercises at the end of the chapters, so you really need to use this book in conjunction with a course in order to be able to check your progress and how well you are learning the information. If you're not using this book with a course, check the MIT Open Courseware website that I mentioned previously. It has some sample assignments you can use.

This book is (in my opinion) an essential resource of common computer science algorithms. It covers a broad range of different algorithm topics and I found the explanations by the authors extremely helpful and simple to understand (both with simple and advanced topics). It does attempt to cover as many algorithm topics as possible, so some topics may not be covered in fine detail (it does not spend as much time on runtime analysis as other books, or spend much time on NP problems). It is perfect for someone taking an algorithms class (grad or undergrad), or someone looking to broaden their algorithm knowledge. I only wish there was some form of solutions guide to help verify answers to review questions.

There are three versions of the second edition, only one of which has the CD:

The first one is published by the MIT Press, with the title "Introduction to Algorithms". This one has no CD. This is the one Amazon currently carries, so if you buy from Amazon, you get no CD.

The second one is published by McGraw-Hill, also with the title "Introduction to Algorithms". This one also has no CD.

The third one is published by McGraw-Hill too, but has the title "Introduction to Algorithms and Java CD-ROM". This is the one with the CD. It's much more expensive than the other two.

The CD in the third version contains implementations of the algorithms in Java.

To find someone that carries the CD version, search for this ISBN-13 number: 9780072970548 , or for "Introduction to Algorithms and Java CD-ROM" .

Note: Some listings that come up for the ISBN number will not be the correct version. Look carefully for "and Java CD-ROM" before buying.

This book is famous, and when I told people 20 years my senior that I was in compilers and I was using the dragon book, they knew the book. There are probably some changes between editions between now and then, but the fundamentals of compiler design has changed little.

And when it comes to be basics, reading this book can be more like slogging. The information is there, but it isn't quiet clear. Some topics have examples that do most of the explaining, while other topics lack a nice example that would explain it.

The Dragon book is a core text for understand complier theory. Great technical reading for all software developers and software engineers.

This is the classical reference book for compiler design. This is not an easy text because of its heavy use of mathematical notation and the algorithms are presented only in pseudo code but you will not find a more complete collection of compiler related algorithms than in this book.

The CGI cover looks great! I only wish it stretched along the spine of the book like in the previous editions.

I spent some serious quality time with the first edition (the "red dragon book"), in three main episodes over the past dozen years: 1) undergraduate compilers class, 2) industry project, and 3) parser generator implementation. During all three episodes, I was disappointed in various ways, though there is no denying that the book contains a wealth of information. As an undergraduate, I found the book somewhat impenetrable. When in industry, I found the book too abstract. When implementing a parser generator, I discovered that the book excludes important research results with regard to LR parser generation. It is the last disappointment that I will focus on.

The book presents parser generation in layers of increasing complexity, from SLR to LR to LALR, where LALR is presented as the penultimate algorithm, though LALR parsers can only handle a subset of the grammars that LR can handle. The justification for this is that the original Knuth LR algorithm is intractable for large grammars. However, an efficient, fully correct, approach for LR parser generation was published in 1977, and on top of that it appears easier to implement than efficient LALR parser generation! The red dragon book's original authors simply cannot have been unaware of this research result, but I suspect that they elected to warm over the "green dragon book" (published in 1977) rather than incorporate the state of the art as of 1986 into the "red dragon book". Now here we are another 20 years later, and as near as I can tell from reading through available online information, the "purple dragon book" is perpetuating this omission. The result of the red dragon book is that we have an entire generation of computer scientists who have been mislead to think that LALR is somehow superior to LR, and the purple dragon book is setting things up for yet another generation to be mislead.

Good book for CS people or people who need to find a job in CS.

Cannot say more. Must have if you prepare for interview. Also good for interviewer as a reference for interview questions.

I picked this book up, and I got Interview tips from a chronic job hopper by Tom Elsa on kindle and between the technical aspects in this book and the how to wow them secrets in the interview tips kindle I should be straight!

This book played a significant part in landing me a job at major technology company. Although out of the entire all-day interview process there was only one question that was actually very similar to one I read about in the book, I did benefit greatly from the advice on how to approach the interviewer, how to be verbal with my problem solving process, how to dress, even how to write my sample code on the white board. These are intangibles that relate particularly to the software development world, and some of the specifics were a welcome departure from the 'generic' advice you get from most sources.

It was my first interview with a major tech company, and I was fresh out of grad school, so though some of those things may be obvious to the more experienced, for me it made a world of difference bringing that with me to the interview. Just made me very comfortable and familiar in what should have been a very unfamiliar environment. And the one question that was very similar to the one I read in the book came from an interviewer that I later found out was pivotal in the final decision to hire. So.. you never know.

Reading this book is not a substitute for being technically adept, and certainly will not guarantee a job, but it does leave you better equipped to handle the interview. Seasoned and beginner alike should find many useful tidbits.

Buy this book if you are interviewing with MSFT anytime soon. I have two brothers and both work for MSFT. They both think this book is a very good prep. Moreover, my eldest bro is an interviewer at MSFT and he uses this book! So does the other 4 interviewers he knows at MSFT.

1) This book has sample interview questions for you to solve and several approaches for each question.
2) The book then tells you which approach is the best and why. VERY VERY NICE!
3) This book also tells you how to approach problems, how to make sure you are not stuck, how to brainstorm and get the best answer.
4) There are puzzle/riddle type questions too.
5) How to write resumes and cover letters as well.
6)Finally, the book also has very nice simple tutorials of all the important/basic concepts of OOP.

Very comprehensive book. A MUST buy!

Yes, I know, we devs should all pay homage to the great Knuth. I don't dispute it. But I also don't want to read a textbook. That's what this is. And unless you're writing low level algorithm libraries, you have no business reading this book. 'Cause if you can't grasp the basics already, this book will do more to scare the crap out of you than anything else.

For the hardcore only!

This is a classic book on algorithm analysis and also in programming techniques. The first one for which author create a hypothetical computing machine (he call it MIX), his own style to describe algorithms, a machine operation instruction and data representation, an assembly language (he call it MIXAL) for map algorithms and data structures into reality.

In another sense: it's a self-contained book.

Each chapter includes a historical review of concepts and methods.


Important topics
----------------
* Section 1.2. Mathematical basement for algorithm performance analysis. Includes a review of Numbers, Powers, Logarithms, binomial coefficients, and also an example of algorithm analysis using "Kirchhoff's first law" for inputs/outputs (flow to/from each step).

* Section 1.3. Description of the hypothetic computing machine (MIX): memory word, registers, comparison and overflow indicators, input/output device names, machine instruction format, machine instructions.

* Section 1.3.2. Description of the assembly language (MIXAL). Includes an interesting figure on relation between machine instruction codes and assembly language representation.

* Section 1.4.1. Introduce concepts of subroutine and co routine. Co routine is described as a team of sub-programs ideal for multi-pass algorithms (the kind used for processing a stream input).

* Section 1.4.3. Introduce in the field of interpretive routines and simulators. The author tells you how good programmers are at the same time good machine designers (as is the same today with virtual machines and little languages as Java). It includes a simulator program for the hypothetical MIX computing machine. You will learn how a state machine or sequential machine is implemented using a so called Control Routine (complement this reading with section 5.1 of "Computer Organization & Design" by Patterson and Hennessy - see my review for that book).

* Section 2.2.5. Describes the use of doubly linked list data structure by using a discrete simulation example (author use previously reviewed concepts like coroutine and control routine). You learn how the idea of coroutine is a base for discrete simulations. Also, author use what he call a "pseudo parallel procedure": a WAITLIST. This kind of procedure was used during 1960s and 1970s as a multi-task procedure.

* Section 2.3.2. Describe binary trees. The highlight of this section is a "Differentiation" algorithm. The author uses an algorithm to traverse a tree in post-order with each node representing a symbol. He then implements the algorithm using a control routine like the one implemented in Sections 1.4.5 and 2.2.5. The control routine includes a "Jump Table" for processing each node.

In resume, the book describes important topics for past and present programmers. I recommend you to read "Computer Organization & Design" by Patterson and Hennessy as an intro. Then read this one. Also you can complement this read with "Fascicle 1." by Donald E. Knuth, which describes an advanced MIX computing machine called MMIX (a 32 bit hypothetical RISC machine similar to DLX machine used on "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach - 2d edition" by Patterson and Hennessy. Also, "The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3" will very useful (Balanced Trees algorithm for example, as a "self-reshaping" structure).

All three volumes of The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP), are classic. Each is a book that every CS student should try to study diligently reimplementing example after example. Not many will succeed to finish even a half of one volume, but if you do please buy all three of them and think about post-graduate studies :-).

I think the most important is to study the Vol 1. It gives enough exposition to the Donald Knuth style and brilliant thinking. While the content is definitely important it is the level of thinking of the author that represents the main value of the book: you instantly understand the book was written by a great scientist and it does not matter much that now the contents of most chapters can be significantly improved using more modern sources. After all Vol 1 is more then a 30 years old book (it is older then Unix) and as such it should be outdated (we all believe in progress, don't we)... And it is not surprising that parts of Vol 1 on of TAOCP today look completely out of touch with reality especially MIX, the CPU instruction set that is used in all volumes.

Actually MIX instruction set (and thus assembler) was outdated even when the book was first published and more reflects unique Knuth's background with IBM 650. It was far from the state of hardware development even in late 60th when the first volume was published, the period when IBM/360 was the king of the hill.

Now IBM 650, a 1,966 lb machine that consumed almost 30 Kw of electricity looks more like a primitive calculator than a real computer: typical installation has the memory of just 10,000 decimal digits ( 1,000 words; 10 digit per word).

It's really sad that Knuth did not adopt System 360 architecture and PL/360 assembler (Wirth's structured assembler for S/360) for his books but we can do nothing about it. Still this is a book about timeless truths, not the book about the resent CS fashion like Java or you name it :-). It actually can serve as a perfect antidote against any current CS fashion.

And Knuth does provide pseudocode with his natural language algorithm description. And natural language pseudocode has an important advantage over 'structured pseudocode. The problem with a "structured pseudocode" is that the set of control structures is fixed and may not reflect the needs of a particular algorithms (branching out of loop is a common problem that is not addressed by structured programming well). Moreover it can cripple the algorithm by enforcing unnatural control structures, the structures that are absent in it but might be present in more modern languages. For example Perl has an interesting set of control structures that is superior to C. But even "Perl control structures set" can be improved further.
That's why assembler language is preferable: it never obscures "natural" control structures for each algorithms, structures that one day can be mapped into some new elegant language construct. Also as one review noted "sometimes high level languages with all their abstractions make things look more complex than they need be."

I would like to stress it again that each volume is very difficult to read; you really need to work on each chapter by reimplementing the examples that Knuth gives in your favorite language (assembler might help but is not essential).

Mathematical considerations as for average and worst running time of a particular algorithm can be largely ignored during the first couple of years of study of this book. Actually most mathematics in Vol. 1 can (and probably should) be initially completely ignored. See Softpanorama Classic Computer Books for more information.

On the negative side this is an overpriced book, if we are talking about students budget. To save money you can buy one of the first editions: there is not that much difference in content to justify the differences in price. The differences do not interfere with the study of the book. Knuth did an excellent work the first time he published each volume and for a significant improvement we probably need another century and another person.

This book has saved my bacon several times through the decades. Once I needed to actually build a database package from scratch instead of using a commercial package.

I almost did not buy it when all I saw in it was mostly math. But I was desperate and it paid off. Turns out you could not explain it any other way. I use it primarily for balanced trees. I may try some thing more exotic later.

The set also looks impressive in the library.

"The Art of Computer Programming" (TAoCP) is about machines and mechanical methods.

TAoCP is "about timeless truths" as the author writes. It's about CPU registers and memory cells. It's about counting the number of machine cycles a program will take. It's about precision. It's not about creating fancy Excel macros or adding pop-up windows to your web page.

Volume one contains two chapters. Chapter One first defines algorithms, gives basic math concepts for computer science starting with Mathematical Induction, continuing with a section on how to analyse algorithm, plus a couple of sections for people familiar with mathematical analysis (i.e. the math behind calculus). It ends with a complete description of MIX, a fictional computer, and of the machine language for programming MIX. (Note: MIX will soon be upgraded to the equally fictional MMIX). I won't repeat the author's rationale for sticking to machine language, and a fictional one at that! Suffice it to say that he has his reasons.

Chapter Two is about lists and trees, the most fundamental of data structures. Stacks, queues, and deques are lists with one or two entry and exit points. Linked lists have as many entry and exit points as there are elements, but careful! you need to worry about linking elements to one another, and ending with correct linking when adding or removing an element. And then there are trees, and the many ways to visit all nodes in a tree exactly once. Leftmost node first? Last? Middle node first?

Who should read this then? Patient people! Knuth published the first volume in 1966 and plans to finish the final edition of the fifth volume in 2015. This is not a For Dummies book, so don't expect to speed read through it. I skimmed the whole thing cover to cover, skipping the exercises and occasionally working hard at achieving perfect understanding of two or three pages (several hours!). I'm now going through it again more slowly, part by part, doing some of the problems. If I want, I can have fun with this book for the rest of my life.

Apart from that, well obviously computer science academics will enjoy TAoCP and find inspiration here for classes and tutorials. This is a monograph, so it is complete and mostly self-contained. It is also accessible to anyone willing to put in the hours to read it, and very little beyond a little programming experience is required.

Most of all, TAoCP is for people who enjoy thinking for its own sake, people who enjoy puzzling out and finding tricky solutions to what might seem like a straightforward problem. Some people enjoy tinkering with cars, others like building model ships. Like these activites, going through the exercises in TAoCP gives us what Fred Brooks calls the sheer joy of creating things.

By the way, it's worth learning MIX. I do the exercises in Perl (egad! I can only handle some of the problems...) but since the solutions are in MIX, it pays to know it well enough to read through Knuth's examples.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Cinnamon Gardens is set in 1927 Colombo Sri Lanka, in an elite section of the city. The novel traces the lives of two relatives, Annalukshmi and Bala. Annalukshmi is a bookish teacher who is the eldest of three daughters. She is facing pressure to marry but she wishes to remain a teacher. Unfortunately for Annalukshmi, having a career and marriage are mutually exclusive. Bala is the son of a prominent Colombo citizen who is a closet homosexual. When his former lover from London appears in Sri Lanka to work on a commission about the future of British colonial rule in Sri Lanka, he is forced to confront his past and come to terms with the fact that he gave up his true identity to satisfy his father. The book traces the political issues of the time as well as critiques the social mores and is a very interesting look at the conflicts inherent in colonial society.

I could almost smell the spices and taste the scent of flower-laden air. The social web of demands is sensitive and true to the environment. The book is romantic and sensuous, hopeful and pitifully sad. It teems with atmosphere, politics, intrigue and disappointment and sacrifices made to maintain a better world. The ending was unsatisfactory. One star character showed her maddening and perhaps arrogant side. Somehow, the decisons made didn't ring true. Nevertheless, such are one's choices, and I recommend this novel without hesitation.
I have been told Cinnamon Gardens was recommended by a well-respeccted university as reading material prior to an academic and cultural trip the institution was leading there.
To understand Sri Lanka today, you must read this.

A novel very well written in which the individual stories of each one of the personages interacting themselves in their emocional or family relationship represent each one of the political, religious or social tendencies of the colonial Ceylon in the 1920s.
Cinnamon Garden, an aristocratic neighborhood in Colombo, Ceylon is the setting of this story where cingaleses, tamils, mixed raced and brittish live together and debate themselves between their millenary customs or the new one introduced by the colonialist, the christianism or the traditional religions, the social liberalization or the cast prejudice, the colonial status quo or independency, traditionalism or progress, a debate that confront each one of the personages and ruled their lives.
A story masterly written recommended for those readers who enjoy a novel where history and manners mixes with a good trama.

This novel has the culmination of different kinds of human rights. Gay rights, women's rights, class rights, labour rights, ethnic rights, religious rights, and the right to self-determination. Everything that the multicultural, multireligious, multiethnic Sri Lanka represents. Taking place in the 1920's, against the backdrop of British colonialism and Ceylon's struggle to gain independence, the author cleverly weaves the story of Balen and Annalukshmi. Balen, a gay Tamil man who is unable to go against the constraints of family and society, finally comes to terms with his true self. Annalukshmi, a career minded Christian Tamil woman who is coerced into arranged marriage, finds her peace in an unexpected turn of events.

CINNAMON GARDENS is basically a period romance novel set in 1920s Ceylon that has intelligence and a literary sensibility. In the character of Annalukshmi, author has created a spunky heroine obviously modeled on Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett. The book is at its best when it blatantly imitates Austen, with its matchmaking and calculating future incomes. But what really animates the book is the struggle of the characters to conform to society's expectations without sacrificing their own individual happiness. Some, like most of the women and the closet homosexual Balendran, cannot break free of the bonds of tradition. Others, like Balendran's brother and the lower caste people break the bonds but pay the price. It is very compellingly written. I read it rather quickly. However, I was ultimately disappointed. I felt that the ending was a big concession to current political correctness and ended with a group of modern cliches. The current cliché is that when a woman is confronted by a choice she must make between two men, the politically correct decision is to decide she doesn't need either of them because she's a strong W-O-M-A-N. And I didn't buy any of it. I also question whether a person of Balendran's particular time, place and upbringing would really "come out" to one of the characters he comes out to. I wish the author had just given the reader what he promised at the beginning. I would have appreciated a straightforward romance a lot more than what I ultimately got. I felt a little like I had been the victim of bait-and-switch by the ending. But the author is very talented and I would like to read his other work.

The material is very superficially laid out and for a book with the word "Practical" in the sub-title it contains almost no practical examples of data mining.

Highly recommend this book for a practical introduction to the theory and applications of Machine Learning. Great book if you are looking to ACTUALLY implement some machine learning systems, prefer to learn via diagrams, a "how-stuff-works"-style explanation, and skip much of the equations and heavy math that fills similar books.
Obviously, this book is a perfect companion to the Weka machine toolbox, which is quickly becoming a standard, invaluable research toolbox for many.

This book was pretty good. I have to admit that for the first hundred or so pages, I was feeling very impatient. All of that information could have been conveyed in about 25 pages, and been much easier to read. But there are some very good examples in here, and it is worth reading. If you are looking for something more technical, try "Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning", by Christopher M. Bishop or "The Elements of Statistical Learning" by Hastie, Tibshirani, and Friedman.

I am very happy with amazon purchases as they always come quick, as described. I love the free supersavings shipping program. Prices are charged in the middle (not the chepest, not the highest) but I know I can always rely on Amazon! Every time I have something to buy online, I go to Amazon.

This book reminds me of the programming books by Deitel&Deitel. It's wordy and superficial, making lots of people feel like they understand the subject. Unfortunately, it takes *much* more than what's in this book to really understand Data Mining. Compare this book to the book by Hastie, Friedman and Tibshiranie, which really goes into the statistics involved in Data Mining.
There is no magic: real Data Mining needs lots of Statistics. You can learn to use Weka, but in order to do real work you'll need to understand what goes behind its nice user interface, and I think this book is not enough.