Fundamentals of Algorithmics by Gilles Brassard - 9780133350685 - Compare Prices on New & Used Textbooks, Cheap Textbooks

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		Fundamentals of Algorithmics by Gilles Brassard, Paul Bratley ISBN-10: 9780133350685 ISBN-10: 0-13-335068-1 ISBN-13: 9780133350685 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-335068-5 Paperback 1995-08-20 Prentice Hall Find Lowest Price
Editorials

Product Description 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 employed, not by the application area, so readers can progress from the underlying abstract concepts to the concrete application essentials. It begins with a compact, but complete introduction to some necessary math. And it approaches the analysis and design of algorithms by type rather than by application.
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!
Too conversational The reason I dislike this book is that it is written in a conversational style, which is very hard to follow. Being a beginner at this, it would be much more helpful if things were separated and clearly emphasized step by step. This book makes it difficult because all proofs are written into a big block of a paragraph. I normally have taken an hour or so to decode a paragraph so that I can say "Oh! That's what he meant." The content is good- layout is bad.
Too conversational This book should be given a rating lower, if it were possible. The reason I dislike this book is that it is written in a conversational style, which is very hard to follow. Being a beginner at this, it would be much more helpful if things were separated and clearly emphasized step by step. This book makes it difficult because all proofs are written into a big block of a paragraph. I normally have taken an hour or so to decode a paragraph so that I can say "Oh! That's what he meant." The content is good- layout is bad.
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).
Fundamentals of Algorithmics Wow...I don't understand how this book can be used in an introductory course to algortithm analysis. I can see where readers with a great deal of mathematical skill would like this book, because that is the only way you are going to understand any of it. There are too many instances where the authors gloss over their explanations, saying that the answer is "Easily derived". If you have a Ph.D in Mathematics and an entry level skill of programming you might like this book. Otherwise, avoid it all cost.

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