Computer Science Books

I was a former teaching assistant this past summer for a lower division computer science course at UC Berkeley. We used this book as our primary text. From several semesters of teaching introductory computer science courses I can say that this book has proven to be an indispensible item for me. Ranging from concise writing to thought provoking questions, it is an excellent introduction to future computer scientists. I recommend this to anyone.

The first part of this book will give the basic programming `how to' knowledge: Common abstractions and basic program design.

The second part introduces Computer Science and will show you what others have been doing with the techniques explained in the first part. It will give a panoramic view of modern CS: databases, operating systems, artificial intelligence, compilers, `soft-computing', etc...

Only the chapter on compilers seems a bit confusing, everything else is clearly explained.

You won't need a good background in maths to follow it.

I purchased these books for my top 4 students in 5th grade chemistry. In my estimation the subject presentation is appropriate up to the 10th grade. The chapters are given in historical order, starting with ancient times. The lessons are fairly short, maybe 4 pages or so, and are at about a 4th grade reading level. We are finishing the chapters in two 45-minute classes with about 30 minutes of homework each day. Each chapter has its own set of questions to highlight the most important information. We cut out the answer keys with little impact to the integrity of the book. I would not consider this book to be adequate on its own for teaching chemistry, not even at the fifth grade level. As a supplement, it is exceptional.

This is the only science book that I have ever picked up and just read straight through! I have taken college chemistry and other science courses, as well as having taught jr. high and high school general science and biology--and I have learned things from this book that I had never known before. Mr. Tiner very gently, in a narrative style, begins with elements which were apparent to ancient man--iron, copper, gold, silver--and describes their properties, history, and uses. He then progresses through the periodic chart introducing the elements, and even the sources of their names. The chapters are brief and interesting, and by the end of the chapters, you have been introduced to the chemical and physical properties of the elements, as well as to the scientist or scientists who discovered them. I plan to use this book as the introduction to each chapter in my children's high school chemistry course. It will make the course much more interesting, as well as to help them see the relevence of chemistry to their own lives. Thank you Mr. Tiner!!! (By the way, this book does not attempt to be a stand-alone, high school chemistry course. It would be excellent for the introduction to chemistry part of a high school level general science course, though.)

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I ordered this book, not knowing what to expect...whether it would be aimed at a general audience or (like his Physics Lectures) something even professionals have to work hard to master. As I started reading it my first reaction was, groan, I've been programming for over fifteen years and this is definitely for total beginners. He gives a brief introduction, a "file clerk model" and then introduces "instruction sets". With his first exercise you begin to realize this is not going to be bedside reading. If you try to think the problems through it is definitely uphill, but once you get to the peaks the sight is exhilarating... This book is demanding but ranks among the best to have come out in a long time (but then I happen to like the three major aspects of the book, math, physics and computer science so maybe I am just a bit biased).

I know I'm not supposed to discuss other reviews, but I would like to point out that the previous review is for a different book! It is for the Feynman Lectures on Computation! And that is an excellent book which is very useful (although probably insufficient) for anyone taking (or teaching) a class on the theory of computation.

This book is quite different. It's a collection of intriguing articles, as well as some reminiscences about Richard Feynman. Feynman had a tendency to tell fascinating stories. It was part and parcel of his style. And it's generally fun to see more of his stories and more stories about him.

The book is divided into five parts. The first is related to the Feynman course on computation. It includes a nice article on neural networks by John Hopfield (I wish some of this material had been put into the "lectures on computation" book!). And an interesting article showing that the motion of Pluto is chaotic. The next section is on reducing the size of computers, which includes scaling of MOS technology and theoretical limits on size reduction. After that comes the "quantum" section. That has an article by Feynman on simulating physics with computers, followed by rather instructive articles on quantum robots, quantum information theory, and quantum computation.

The fourth section is on parallel computation. And the final section is on "fundamentals." This includes an article by John A. Wheeler (Feynman's thesis advisor at Princeton) who asks what quantum physics and information theory can tell us about the question, "How come existence?"

I enjoyed this book very much.

Apenas he empezado a leer los primeros capítulos de este libro, y he encontrado que su contenido es de altísima calidad y bastante claro de entender.

Se lo recomiendo a quien quiera tener un conocimiento más profundo en lo que son y cómo funcionan los distintos buses de campo más importantes.

For years I've listened to talk about the wonders of fieldbus. Claims for this technology ranged from "less wire and maintenance" to "world peace and prosperity"! It's now such a relief to have an unbiased book that explains in simple terms some of the most common fieldbus technologies. Hopefully, this information, combined with the growing availability of fieldbus products, will make it possible for me to improve the control system in my plant.

If you think you have to study finite fields and related discrete mathematics for some reasons, then you will love the style and organization of this (almost classic) book simply because the author always carefully selects an example and takes step-by-step refinements with detailed explanations unlike most other textbooks containing theorems and theorems and theorems. If you think you are an engineer working on discrete mathematics and coding for digital communication systems, this book will provide a down-to-earth introduction and some pretty advanced results on finite fields and their applications to designing codes as if you listen to the author's lecture in a classroom face-to-face.

It starts with some preliminaries on Euclidean domains and algorithm to construct finite fields, and then develops some abstract properties of finite fields, discusses factoring polynomials and trace functions. All these materials are very well-organized with lots of self-exercises to support the theory of linear recurrences over finite fields, and finally, m-sequences and problems of designing sets of binary sequences with good correlation properties for CDMA applications, which is one of the fundamental theory supporting the current widespread digital cellular telephone systems technology.

To communication engineers this book provides some practice on advanced materials in discrete mathematics and coding, and to applied mathematician it provides a good connection between his/her background and where-to-start a technical research in the area of codes and sequences for digital communications.

I read this book as a learning tool to help my study of coding theory, and I find this book to be very well written and very helpful.

McEliece excuses himself for covering only what he considers the 'dry' part of finite fields, but the exercises in this book do a great job in giving examples of the more engineering applications of the theory presented in this book.

An interesting side note is that several of the graduate students listed in the preface are now well-known professors in digital communications, including Jim Lehnert at Purdue and Wayne Stark at Michigan.

Since this text is fairly old, this book is highly recommended as an introduction to coding theory based on classical constructions. To my knowledge there are no good textbooks published that covers graphical codes to this date (year 2000). If you are interested in graphical codes (such as LDPC or Turbo Codes), see McEliece's excellent "The Generalized Distributive Law" paper on the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, March 2000.

A first book of C, is a very good book for beginners because it breaks a program down. For instance, the book take each line and tells you exactly what the program is trying to do and how it will use that line in the program. I need this book so will you please help me!?

Being a self-taught programmer, I've had opportunity to peruse many C/C++ tutorial books. In my estimation, this one tops them all in terms of clarity and readability. It was the first publication which really made the concepts "click" for me. An excellent work! I highly recommend it!

This book is very technical, which is exactly what I was looking for. It is filled with architectual diagrams, opcodes, and even code fragments from the earliest computers. Some of these machines even predate World War 2.

The book opens with discussions on the taxonomy of these primordial computers. This section is the weakest part of the book. External references are mentioned, when they should have been described in detail. Another typical problem is on page 8, where a family tree is printed in a micro-fiche font.

The remainder of the book is divided into sections for the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. This is the bulk of the text, and the reason why you would want to buy it. I must stress again, that the articles are extremely technical. They will be hard to follow without a background in digital design, some knowledge of system architecture, and maybe some assembly. But for those who can appreciate it, it is absolutely fascinating.

This is my favorite book that none of my friends would appreciate!

This is a series of papers stitched into a book, and without exception they are all well written, provide lots of technical detail, and are a joy to read. I highly recommend this book if you have any interest in the history of computing machinery and electronics. The only thing lacking is a story line or a plot - many books will detail the genius of a specific person or technical team (e.g. Seymour Cray, or the Macintosh developers), then take you through each phase of the development and success (or failure) of one or more products. This book, by contrast, is focused on the technical nitty-gritty, and the personalities and financial success/failure of the business is generally ignored.

Prompt delivery, book was in great shape. I'd buy my next textbook this way!

The greatest quality of this book is that all the author expects the reader to have is a basic mathematics background (a Discrete Structures background of basic Set Theory). It contains consise explanations and straightforward proofs to all the essential theorems of the subject,but, fortunately, is NOT too elementary that it loses its true mathematical appeal. To top it all, it is chock-full of excellent applied problems in communications, image transmission, and even a party trick here or there (oh yes, friends WILL be impressed when you can error-correct an ISBN!).
In short, I think this book serves as a wonderful textbook into introductory Coding theory. And as for the subject of Coding Theory in general, maybe to spark a bit more interest in some potential customers, a thorough study of the theory will bring together all types of Mathematics (from algebra, calculus, number theory, set theory, finite geometry, and linear algebra).
All will be revealed!

I used this book in conjunction with "Fundamentals of Complex Analysis..." by Saff et al for a graduate level course.

This book gives very clear introductions and explanations of complex variable concepts and served as a boon for my first complex variable course; I went through many other books but they all seemed to be much more abstract that this one. If you're new to the world of complex variables and have trouble reading existing books, this book may very well be your life saver.

Another reference: Search for "Complex Analysis Modules by Mathews") on google. This served as a great online reference and has a corresponding book: COMPLEX ANALYSIS: for Mathematics and Engineering by John H. Mathews and Russell W. Howell. Although I did not read this book, the author has put up wonderful online notes which I did use.

I used this book for two Graduate semesters of Complex Analysis. The course text was Brown and Churchill which I often found lacking in detail. This book might not be consider by some as a Graduate level text however I found it to be an excellent supplemental text to fill in the gaps and improve my understanding of the material.