Computer Science Books

Before reading this book I read "The Unified Modeling Language User Guide". I can say that "The Unified Modeling Language User Guide" is about the theory and "UML 2 and the Unified Process..." is about practice.

I think that both books are must for UML beginners and reference for the UML professionals.

In "UML 2 and the Unified Process.." authors show UML in action within the Unified Process, a framework for software development. The book describes how to analyze and design a software by giving a real example. Given examples are also complete and available online.

The language of the book is simple (easy to understand) and its contents is organized very well.

This book gave me an insight about the UML and also introduced me to the Unified Process. I would recommend it with 5+ stars to everybody.

As a matter of fact I'm not an UML fan nor I particularly favour unified process. Indeed, I'm much more into Agile Development and XP.

The authors do not try to explain why unified process should be better than other processes. They just describe the method: It's up to the reader to decide which parts of the method are good or bad for his job. The reader is not bored with long enthusiastic comments on how he will be a more capable engineer after learning UML and UP. Unified Process is described in an unbiased and precise way: even those who do not favour UP may gather new and interesting ideas to incorporate in their development method.

The approach on UML is even more interesting. The basic ideas is that graphics should be a view, but what matters is text (which *is* something that the UML creators *did* think). Far to many lesser books focus on diagrams and miss to explain the interesting part is their semantics and their descriptions. Indeed, I try not to use UML unless I'm rather sure it's the best way to express a given concept: this book is a helpful reference on how to write correct and practical specifications using UML.

This is a great useful book.

UML has grown. A few years ago, when UML was just getting accepted, a book on how to use it would have been much thinner. But the successful broad uptake of UML led to its semantic notation being expanded. What the authors give us here is a thorough exposition of UML 2.0 and how to use it.

As you might expect, there are numerous examples in UML. Which, to many readers, might be more understandable than a mere abstract diagram. But the book is more than just about explaining the UML semantics. It also goes into the Unified Process for running a project, and how this can be documented in UML. By doing so, the authors hope to better enable an understanding of both.

There is also something else, related to the above, but sufficiently different and important to warrant notice. If you write in any object oriented language, it requires certain skills in designing classes and how they interact. Part 4 of the book concerns these issues, which it discusses under the rubric of "Design". A good explanation of the basic concepts. Like inheritance versus aggregation, or inheritance versus interfaces. Or why the lack of multiple inheritance in a language like C# or Java is not necessarily a deficiency.

This book gives a good introduction into modern software enigeering and I think that especially the first chapters about basics in object orientation and how the whole process works should be read by every person participating in a software project. I think these chapters are also worth reading for non computer science people.

This book covers almost all of the information needed for A Levle.

I would recomend purchasing it in prefrance to other revisoion books.

Quite simply, this is the best general purpose computing book I have ever read. It would say it is absolute essential for A-level students, but also has an awful lot to offer anyone else, as this will act as a superb reference book for many years to come. If you are studying computing in any form, then you are doing yourself an injustice by not owning this superb book....

If you are an A level computing student, I strongly recommend you to buy this book. Most information in the book is up to date. Color printed, which can always keep you awake. Even if you feel the book not enough for you, it provides some web site for you to reinforce the book.

The Best A level book I have seen. Covers all of the most recent material

I picked this text for my virtual reality course here at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory and found it to be an excellent, well written, comprehensive introduction to the field.

It is interesting this book, since gives a complete visualization of the current virtual reality. In form didactics it travels all the fields of the VR, not serving alone for a neophyte, also for somebody that the VR knows. Very good book
Hugo Neira S

I received this book shortly after it was published. Since then it has served well as a reference for my students working in my VR research group, as well as being very enlightening for me as well.
I will be teaching a course on VR the next two spring semesters at Valparaiso University, and will be using this text.
The book does a great job of spanning the current VR technology out there, as well as addressing issues for development. I'd recommend it for VR researchers, as well as those teaching VR at the undergrad or grad level.

Understanding Virtual Reality" is the definitive, authoritative, and exhausive exploration of the field by two insiders and practioners, Sherman and Craig. Virtual reality, a uniquely viewer-centric, large field-of-view, dynamic display technology has evolved over the past decade in many physical formats, driven by many software applications using a variety of operating systems, computers, and specialized libraries. Sherman and Craig capture them all in this substantial volume.

Most writing about virtual reality involves summarizing and interpreting interviews and demos, with massive doses of the speculative and the spectacular, and lots of historical fuzziness. Sherman and Craig, however, lived in the world of actual VR production at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where corporate researchers, educators, scientists, and artists make use of this technology in their daily work. They have personally suffered with VR tech and benefited greatly from access to it as well as to amazing amounts of computing, engineering, and scientific talent. They were held to real deadlines of corporate contracts, scientific conference demonstrations, and the design of IMAX productions. While they were doing all this, they were also writing this book. As a result, "Understanding Virtual Reality" has the integrity and feel of a long-term, eyewitness account and a personal journal, because these production-oriented researchers were documenting the times contemporaneously, rather than trying to reconstruct the details years later.

I know all this because I was their group leader for a couple of years in the mid-90's at NCSA, and their colleague in VR the years before and after. I co-invented the CAVE hardware, among other things, with Dan Sandin at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in 1991.

I've been using various shell commands I picked up here and there over the past couple years. I decided it was time to buckle down and gain a deeper understanding of the what and the why. After spending a couple of hours with this book, I have the basics solidly under my belt. The writing is clear, concise, and entertaining. I only wish I would have started here instead of picking it up piecemeal (and painfully) via various websites.

I don't know if an experienced user would find it as compelling, but for a newbie, it's a godsend.

UNIX,(3rd Edition) by Deborah & Eric Ray is the best book I've come across for learning the fundamentals of this operating system and for using a Linix distribution for the first time. This book is accessible to beginners and experienced users alike. Its format and examples lend themselves to self-study and encourage experimentation. I used it as my companion reference for learning the Linix MEPIS distribution and it worked perfectly. I highly recommend it for every user of the UNIX OS who wants a handy and easy-to-follow guide.

I was wondering through the Unix maze, untill this small title cleared everything up. A little delight to have. If only I had known it existed, I would not have had my butt kicked from title to title, on craps, who called themselves Unix learning guides.

I have been looking for good Unix book for beginer. I am in computer industry for 10 years, mostly in web applications. My unix knowledge is minimal (first 5 chapters of this book). Recently I decided to improve my skills to get ready for shell scripts. I found this book in my local library.

Book was organized very well, simple and visual approach ensures you like a teacher. Straight to the point and simple. I highly recommand this book to beginers and intermediate levels. If you planning to jump into shell script, first refresh your basics from this book.

Michael Heim has written a very balanced look at Virtual Reality. In fact, he has even coined a term for it; Virtual Realism, to contrast with the over hyped ramblings of the "network idealists". I found myself taking time to savor this book. It is not a page turner in the proverbial sense. Rather the book causes one to calmly meditate on the current "Art of Virtual Reality". It also introduces novel (to me anyway) concepts such as two models of virtual world building: the tunnel and the spiral. One of the final chapters goes in depth about Nature and Cyberspace, something that I had never considered in the same thought. Despite being about a subject that is somewhat "out there" this book was very approachable. If you are at all remotely interested in man and computers, networks, the nature of reality or other philosophical topics central to the new millenium then buy this book. Read it carefully. Enjoy.

Michael Heim's "Virtual Realism" is a critical yet pragmatic exploration of the present state and future evolution of virtual reality (VR) technology. Unlike much of the predominate rhetoric of VR theory, Heim's does not situate himself as either a VR idealist or alarmist, but instead offers a strategy for reconciling these polar positions by way of a critical, yet pragmatic analysis called "virtual realism". What is most is interesting about this book is the eclectic array of examples Heim's uses to support and illustrate his strategy. By drawing on examples as diverse as interactive art exhibits, the music of Glenn Gould and Jim Morrison, and extending to nuclear waste sites, he envisions a not only better ways to live with technology, but ways to make technology more humane. Heim's writing is both eloquent and accessible making "Virtual Realism" an insightful study for anyone interested in the impact of technology on our social and physical environment.

Michael Heim, in Virtual Realism , "dedicated to those minds at large who find no home in the established schools", explores the many ways in which virtual reality is increasingly influencing our lives. These techniques are both challenging the content of the normative design arts, and extending the boundaries of thought.

VR realism mixes traditional aesthetic criticism with aditional questions of immersion, interactivity, and information intensity. Virtual realism steers a course between the idealists who believe computerised life represents a higher form of existence and the down-to-earth realists who fear that computer simulations threaten ecological and local values. Further, a spacemaker is a designer of cyberspace constructs like a filmaker.

Riley, in The Visible, The Visual and The Vicarious, comments, "The real landscape often gives rise to an internally experienced landscape that is far richer that the "real" landscape. Such fantasy landscapes are open-ended in interpretation and may define the boundaries of postmodern existence."

Virtual, imaginary, and film art landscapes are more numerous and perhaps more significant than real landscapes.

Copyright 1998 Robert Hotten

This is the latest in a series of books by Michael Heim on the human changes, both good and bad, wrought by the introduction of computers. Virtual Realism in particular seeks to find a balance between a retreat from technology and the wholesale embrace of it without regard for the consequences. He starts out defining the technology of virtual reality in such a way as to understand the strong reactions to it. He follows with a series of essays seeking to find the balance implied by the title. This is an accessible but always interesting book not requiring an extensive technical or philosophical background. His analysis is not exhaustive or linear, but that is not his intent. He brings up and ponders the big issues involved with human adoption of and adaptation to a powerful new technology.

We are visually oriented people. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. And with the dramatic increases in computer power that have come about in recent years we can visually display things that not too many years ago took a whole room of equipment.

This book presents a concise one volume introduction to visualizing data structures. It is not specific to any one discipline. The biologist programming how to visualize DNA will get as much out of the book as will the game developer. The material is presented at the undergraduate student level where some programming experience, especially in C++ is a prerequisite.

While there is no CD in the book, there is a companion web site maintained at the publishers which includes the source code of examples given in the book as well as additional source codes of various algorithmic procedures as well as test data to check that the code is compiling correctly. Also on the web are pointers to useful resources related to the contents of each chapter.

This is not a "How did Photoshop do it?" kind of algorithm book. I would suggest that if you want to make good use of this book that you already have had a course on the theory of algorithms, and thus understand how to follow the derivation of whether an algorithm is O(n), O(nlgn), etc. That is because the author dedicates much space to determining what the time-efficiency of each algorithm is before he goes into the details. Next, the author talks about each algorithm in pseudocode, and then finally there is the actual C++ code for the algorithm itself. Not every algorithm involves OpenGL, because quite a few of them don't actually draw anything, they just support the drawing of images by other algorithms. The book is well illustrated. Whenever there might be a question about an algorithm that words or equations can't answer, there always seems to be a figure available to finish the job. The book has a very academic tone to it, and each chapter ends with extensive bibliographic notes. The following is the table of contents:

1. Overview - A fly-over of the entire book.

2. Abstract Data Structures - Talks about solutions to common problems that come up time and again in visual computing. Topics include the Fibonacci numbers, conversions between 1D and nD array indices, how to flood-fill an area using a queue, and detecting whether or not a set of line segments intersect. This may not seem to have much to do with data structures, but the book ties it all in.

3. Coordinate Pipelines - Subjects include translation between Euclidean and projective points, 2D polygon transformations, 3D mesh transformations, and how to render multiple views to one device display by using viewport mappings. OpenGL is used heavily in this chapter.

4. Images - An oddly titled chapter, because if you get right down to it, the whole book is technically about images. The topics include the simple task of displaying the RGB color cube in OpenGL as well as the more complex tasks of image warping, image compositing, halftoning, and dithering.

5. Meshes - Meshes come up often when drawing complex and realistic 3D figures. Topics include approximating a sphere by with a mesh and various remeshing experiments and algorithms with the "Stanford Bunny" as a subject of these experiments.

6. Animation - A brief overview of what it takes to make your images "move". I found this the least satisfying of the book's chapters. "Computer Animation" by Parent does a better job of discussing this topic, in my opinion.

7. Randomization - Topics include computing a uniformly random permutation, quick sort, selecting the nth smallest element of an array, and computing the scaled rigid transformation matching a given pair of segments. The author does a great job of discussing the algorithms, but comes up a bit short in the motivation for these algorithms in visual computing.

8. Higher Dimensions for 3D - Includes some good algorithms on computational geometry and how it ties into graphics. Topics include the k-means iterative clusteriing method, rasterizing a Voronoi diagram, and computing an approximation of the smallest enclosing ball in large dimensions. The author does a good job of tying in each algorithm to its significance in graphics.

9. Robustness - Discusses how to determine if certain algorithms are easily "broken". This discussion is done from the perspective of computing the area of triangles using floating point numbers and also determining if and only if two line segments intersect.

This book does not hold your hand on the issues of algorithm theory, C++ programming, OpenGL, or even basic computer graphics and image processing theory. You are expected to already know that material. This book is more about the algorithms that are applicable to geometry, graphics, and vision and what makes them useful, efficient, and robust. Highly recommended.

I should say from the get-go that I know the author personally, and I've reviewed chapters before the book appeared. I think this book fills a great space between more applied computer vision or computer graphics books, and the more theoretical computational geometry books. It provides a host of practical problems that the author has encountered in his research at Sony Research Labs, and feeds tons of excellent theory to solve it. The theoretical part is made very accessible, even if it assumes some reasonable (college-level) mastery of linear algebra.

The biggest attraction of this book is that it lies at the confluence of several fields. Depending on your background, you may be more versed in the systems issues (vision or graphics), or the algorithmic issues (computational geometries). The first kind of person will really appreciate all the foundations they are given to solve the problems at hand. How to apply them is very well explained in the chapters by using hands-on examples, and ample illustration.

To give you a short idea of the table of contents (more information can be found on the author's book web site, easily found through google):

The chapter on images, for instance, does great job discussing Halftoning, Morphing, Color space, and Interpolation/Sampling/Convolution, and contains material that will be familiar to computer vision and graphics people.

On the other hand, the chapter on meshes (with discussion of half-edge and mesh data structures, and mesh smoothing/parameterization) will be very familiar to a computational geometer or graphics person.

The chapter on data structures includes what is usually found in advanced algorithm textbooks. The advantage of having it in such a context is that its presentation is much more adapted to immediate use. There is also practical considerations such as C++ implementation, and a separate chapter on the use of randomization as an algorithmic design technique. That chapter covers an important problem of point registration and geometric point matching that is very useful in camera registration and in photo merging.

The central piece (that takes 130 pages) is the discussion of coordinates (chapter 3, "The Coordinate Pipeline") which achieves the feat of presenting all that is useful for discussing images (2D), meshes (3D), or camera transformation (projective geometry) in a unified and very accessible presentation. This chapter also introduces a few fundamental tools like homographies and epipolar geometry, singular value decomposition (SVD), Plucker coordinates (for lines in space), conics and quadrics. It is a gem and will prove an invaluable reference in my library.

Finally beyond the algorithmic and application issue, the author concludes with a chapter on robustness, a problem that plagues all these applications. It discusses a set of techniques that can be used to eradicate or at least lessen floating-point precision-related crashes (which not just result in numerical inaccuracy, but can altogether prevent the successful completion of a program and generate all kinds of catastrophic failures).

To recap, this is an excellent books that puts into perspective techniques from more theoretical algorithm and geometry communities to use for vision and graphics problem, among other applications. It is geared towards researchers/developers of applications. It is not a research monograph, and can advantageously be used as a textbook for a graduate or advanced underdgraduate class.

A good book for the student of computer graphics. The field is now very mature, and the book describes key algorithms invented over the last 30 years for rendering and ray tracing. Also useful to some readers will be the samples of C++ code that implement several of the algorithms.

As a learning experience, the book has merit. However, if you are tempted to do research in this field, the book should be approached with caution. When I said the field is mature, I meant that surely much of the techniques for visualisation have already been found. Combine this with the high resolution of current graphics consoles, and we get little room for significant visible improvement. Diminishing returns. The time to get into this field would have been in the 70s and 80s. As a research guide, the book does not really convey the prospects of this field.

This is well written book that easy to understand for knowing basic algorithms and design techniques for VLSI design. Authors have presented the material in formal yet simple language that makes it a god book for senior undergraduates and starters in VLSI CAD.

A nice book, infact one of the best in the field, they give good review of the available research in the area. Good for undergraduate as well as post graduates. When you read it you feel as if the author was standing and explaining the material. Good work Sait !!

Since this book was published in 1997, a lot has happend in the area of physical design automation--but this is still a remarkably good text, especially for students and beginners. This because not only is it exceedingly clearly written, it concentraits on classic techniques which form the foundation for techniques still used today.

What is urgently needed is a bang-up-to-date text on this subject which contains materials for the more advanced user--not just for students, but also for old salts like myself who have been working in the trenches for 10 years! If such a text were to be written by these authors, I'm sure it would be a classic.

Sadly, EDA industry is a very small and shrinking industry, and a book like this is HARD to write, because you have to be an expert in so many fields. So this book is probably as good as we can reasonably expect to see anytime soon.

I have read most of the book and implemented most of the propsed algorithms. It was easy to understend. The authors simplified much of the notations that is used by the oirignal writers of the algorithms. It opens the area for any one intersted in those topics to continue research with an open mind about what to choose and how.

Stories which are on paper do not have the magical effect. The book gives a deep insight what the art of storytelling is.

I have read this book and it was in the summer of my discontent. And it lifted my weary spirit as a successful and busy African Storyteller, not knowing that this was called 'burn out!'.

Through the reading of The Way of the Storyteller, I realized I had to write the way of the African Storyteller, trying to motivate African and African American children to see how great it was that they were from Africa even though the world consistently tries to convince them that this is a shame and we as Africans are backward and disorganized.

I realized why God had called me to be a storyteller and the great healing art of telling.

I wonder if Ms. Sawyer is still living?

Carroll Durodola

This has all the wisdom that a lifetime of storytelling can bring and it's all written down for you. All aspects of storytelling are highlighted and thoughts are discussed, and Ruth Sawyer's rich experience is given.

The literature will help you see the big picture. Life is all about the detail and it is that detail that one has to focus on when doing a story. The practice of story telling is one in where one must too have lots of experiences, such as? Going on trips and seeing the different cultures and lands of other countries for example along with socializing with people. This also includes reading a lot of books and magazines in order to get ideas. Just read it, and don't judge the book by its cover and i hope you get the material in order to make your storytelling in writing or in oral situations fruitful.

Probably the most readable introduction to the Z formal method that I have seen. Jacky does a great job of showing the reader why Z might be useful, gently introducing the concepts, and showing how they can be translated into real code. While this book is not a comprehensive Z reference, it is certainly a wonderful introduction that will give the reader most of the tools they might need (and a great background for learning any of Z's more obscure corners).

This book is the first book I've read on Z or formal methods. It's very easy to read and understand, and replete with Z examples. I recommend it to anyone who's interested in learning Z.

The thing I found most helpful about this book is that the author presents Z in comparison to things that we are already (probably) familiar with: data flow diagrams, state charts, etc. He shows the difference between Z and these things, and walks you through a comparison of one system using all 4 different methods.

There are many good books on how to construct, verify, and establish actual program code using Z. I have read bits and pieces of many in an attempt to gain a general understanding of the whole development process and a breadth of approaches taken to it. I cannot say that I have come accross a book even approaching The Way of Z in both clarity and completeness. Dr. Jacky has left nothing out of this text and it reads extremely smoothly (without the sacrifice of complexity). I recommend it to any Formal Methods student, programmer and anyone interested in the formal specification, verification, and implementation process.

I already have books one and two in the Hyperlinkz series, so I was excited about getting book three. It's really good! Since I like computers, I like it because it involves a laptop. I think it's really cool that the kids can travel through the Internet that way. I'm looking forward to book four.

A little bit of history, a lot of fun. Ashley and Austin are up to the challenge of weaving through the musical web sites and resolving more than out of time and place issues. Again Robert Elmer brings us to a satisfactory conclusion and yet, whets our appetites for another crazy adventure.

From Fanny Crosby to a Macedonian Prison to the Ft. McHenry and our National Anthem, Ashley and Austin Webster take the reader on a musical adventure; and in the process, learn amazing facts. Robert Elmer's responsible enthusiasm for surfing ignites interest in learning through the use of imaginative fiction. In this Hyperlinkz series, time travel meets the Internet. A must read for all ages.

The HyperLinkz Series' "Web Jam" book (3rd in the series) is a delight! Clever, clever story line with an appeal to today's kids will challenge and entertain both boys and girls. The internet adventures of Austin and Ashley Webster catch the reader in a "don't want to put it down" mode as you whirl through the World Wide Web. Don't miss this one!