Customer Reviews (1)

Of historical importance
The AM machine, developed by Doug Lenat in 1976 in his Phd dissertation, was designed to invent mathematical concepts and engage in making mathematical conjectures in elementary set theory and number theory. In the first article of this book, and the only one that will be reviewed here, Lenat summarizes AM in the context of the theme of the book. The AM machine is not viewed anymore as being interesting (no pun intended), but readers who have an interest in automated mathematical discovery should read this article, both for its insights and because of its historical importance. Many of the approaches to automated mathematical discovery that came after AM were very similar to it, both in terms of the form of the reasoning patterns and the use of extensive knowledge bases in mathematics.

As Lenat describes it in his article, AM began with 115 elementary concepts such as sets and "bags", and was able to arrive at concepts such as "subset" and "disjoint set". It was also able to formulate concepts in number theory such as prime numbers and highly composite numbers. A concept in AM is given a "frame representation", where each frame has 25 "facets" and can have multiple entries for each facet. The facets could be definitions, algorithms, or examples of a concept, or generalizations or specializations of a concept, or conjectures involving a particular concept. A collection of tasks acting on a facet of a concept, and ordered by "interestingness," were then processed by AM. A task performs a particular action on the facet by searching through its knowledge base of 242 heuristics. AM then chooses the appropriate heuristic(s) for the task, and then performs any subtasks that are suggested by the heuristic(s).

A weighting scheme, consisting of an assignment of a numerical value, is applied to concepts, the individual facets, and the actions on concepts. This scheme is used to judge whether a concept, facet, or action is "interesting" in some sense. A formula is then used to calculate the "worth" of a task, this formula being dependent on a weighted sum of these numerical values and the actual number of reasons it counted for the judgment of "interestingness". The knowledge base of heuristics in AM included a collection of heuristics to be used for deciding the interestingness of a concept. One of these heuristics was that a concept is interesting if there are interesting conjectures about it. A concept is considered uninteresting if no examples or at best only a few examples of it can be found, even after repeated attempts by AM.

Several questions arise when considering the discovery process utilized by AM. One obvious one concerns the originality of the discoveries which it made. Were the concepts truly discovered or were they hidden behind the scenes in the elementary concepts? For example, was the idea of a subset already encoded in the elementary concepts? Frequently, a human was called upon to recognize the "rediscovery" of the concept of subset, but was this really necessary? Would AM have eventually discovered the concept of a subset, if given sufficient time? This brings up the general question as to whether a human could at all times be capable of serving as a tutor or advisor to the machine. What if the concepts are too obscure or complex for human understanding or able to be assimilated by a human on a reasonable time scale?In addition, a result might be interesting from the viewpoint of the machine, but be vacuous or completely uninteresting from a human standpoint. Should then the machine be thought of as being uncreative when this occurs? In the actual use of AM, the users were able to manipulate AM to make it reason in a particular direction. On the other hand, this issues would not be troubling if viewed from the standpoint of another machine who might be doing the "coaching". Receiving help from a human or otherwise may be viewed as a bias term for the learning/discovery process. This also would take into account the fact that research in mathematics does not take place in isolation, but instead in a "community of mathematicians".

Another issue concerns the need for doing proofs in mathematics. Typically, a result, in particular an interesting result, would not be judged as such unless there was a proof given for it. This of course excludes conjectures, which are generated quite frequently in the actual practice of mathematical discovery. The making of conjectures is thus certainly thought of as something that a machine purporting to be engaged in mathematical discovery should be able to do. However, it should also be expected to do proofs of some of the discovered concepts. Proofs however were never generated by the AM machine. Does this mean that it was not exhibiting true creativity? From another standpoint, it would be advantageous for AM to be able to engage in the construction of proofs, since, as every human mathematician knows, the actual proof of a mathematical result can frequently inspire more mathematical ideas and conjectures. Thus the construction of proofs would make AM more effective as an automated discovery machine. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
This book's introduction features a humorous story of a manwith a line of people behind him, who explains to his boss, "Ican't find an efficient algorithm, but neither can all these famouspeople." This man illustrates an important quality of a class ofproblems, namely, the NP-complete problems: if you can prove that aproblem is in this class, then it has no known polynomial-timesolution that is guaranteed to work in general. This quality impliesthat the problem is difficult to deal with in practice.

The focusof this book is to teach the reader how to identify, deal with, andunderstand the essence of NP-complete problems; Computers andIntractability does all of those things effectively. In a readableyet mathematically rigorous manner, the book covers topics such as howto prove that a given problem is NP-complete and how to cope withNP-complete problems. (There is even a chapter on advanced topics,with numerous references.) Computers and Intractability alsocontains a list of more than 300 problems--most of which are known tobe NP-complete--with comments and references. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Definitely a classic but not good for beginners
I have to say that this is a true classic.It gives a very nice treatment of what is NP-completeness in a fashion that really defends the topic well.It gives nice illustrations to show different situations and how to deal with it.But after the first couple of chapters it does get a little out there with the proofs it does.It is still approachable, but it assumes that the reader is already familiar with the basics of combinatorial complexity, especially in reductions.I would only recommend this book to readers who has gone through such books as Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. or Combinatorial Complexity by Papadimitriou and Steiglitz.Those two books are more for beginners and this book should be one to help anyone interested in NP-complete problems to get more practice and depth understanding.Overall a great book for anyone interested in the topic.The grand challenge is to reduce everything to at least something within the 150 problems listed on your own.

comprehensive book for NP-completeness
The book is excellent in explaining NP-completeness problem. Take it as a reference if you would like to do research in this field.

Published in 1979 and still the best
This is a rare example of a textbook where the authors actually go to the trouble of considering the fact that the intended reader is a non-expert. Published in 1979 and still the best.

Arrived in time, good condition
The book arrived in time, in good condition, and adequate packing.

A Beautiful Book on a Beautiful Subject
This is among the most eloquently written books that I have ever read in my life.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
This new Java edition of the AP Computer Science manual presents four full-length AP Computer Science practice exams with questions answered and explained. Two are A exams, two are AB exams, and all four are modeled on the actual exam. A general subject review covers all topics tested on the exam, including Java language features; classes and objects; inheritance and polymorphism; program design and analysis; one- and two-dimensional arrays; recursion; linked lists; stacks, queues and priority queues; trees; collections; and sorting and searching. A final chapter describes the Marine Biology Simulation Case Study. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

hard--but worth it
maria litvin - i'd recommend it to anyone who never learned java b4. this book definitely stresses over concept, but the problems are not enough and much easier than the test i took in may. as a result, i'd recommend u to buy this book, but a harder book to go along with it like ds-marketing or barron's.
princeton - this book is pretty alright. it has good information, but i don't think it's enough. the way the author writes is understandable, but again, problems are not enough. sometimes there are only 4 problems per chapter. also, the practice test at the end of the chapter are not enough. there's only 1 set for A and 1 set for AB.
barron's - this book places emphasis on the problems. for example, in marine biology, there's at least 40 problems. don't buy this if u get bored easily because reading this book is like reading college textbooks. however, i can guarantee u that this book will raise ur score much quicker than any other book. however, this book is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder than the actual exam. i'd say that if u get a raw score of 50/80 on the practice test, u can probably get a 5.
5 steps - i borrowed this book from a friend about a week before the test. i feel like this book is almost exactly like the test. it has every type of problem, and gives excellent short summaries at the end of each chapter. it's quite understandable.
b4 taking compsci ap, i did 5 books: maria litvin, barron, princeton, 5 steps to a 5, and ds-marketing. i'd say that if u have a pretty decent teacher, u'll probably only need 5 steps or barron's. otherwise, i'd recommend at least 2 of the books above. however, remember that ds-marketing DOES NOT have marine biology (which makes up about 20% of the exam)

Barron's books really prepares for APCS A
This book is great.The students say that the questions in the book are generally harder than the actual test, but they cover the appropriate topics.It is very well organized.This is the only book that is needed for the AP A test.
Thanks Roselyn.

If you can only buy one review book, buy this one.
What I look for in a review book is LOTS of questions.This one has just that, and all with detailed answers.The style of questions is pretty close to the AP exam and it contains plenty of material for the AB exam.The Marine Biology section is very helpful.
The only draw back might be that the book is a little large for a review book, and some of the questions are very hard.

Contents and practice tests are too trivia
To use this book for review purpose, the contents are too detailed. But it also lacks of examples and exercises to serve as a textbook. The practice questions are very different from the actual exams. While it is a good idea to target the practice questions slightly harder than the actual exams, it loses the purpose if problems are simply tricky, trivia or unclear.

Great Practice tests
I am giving this book 4 stars only becuase I thin the "review" is just reteaching you, and has no good tips for actually taking the test.The practice tests are really good, I think they are as hard as the real thing (based on the sample questions given by collegeboard), and also there is a grading scale, unlike it's preceder.It made me feel a lot better that I only has to get 70% right to get a 5 on the AB exam.All in all this is a great book, but I would advice you to get Litvin's instead.Get this book from the library. ... Read more

Product Description
This book helps you write computer solutions to mathematical problems-at all levels. Supplies complete programs, complete subroutines, and fragments of code to be included directly within the user's program. 3 1/2 inch disk included. DLC: Engineering mathematics - Data processing. ... Read more

Product Description

This second edition of Grune and Jacobs’ brilliant work presents new developments and discoveries that have been made in the field. Parsing, also referred to as syntax analysis, has been and continues to be an essential part of computer science and linguistics. Parsing techniques have grown considerably in importance, both in computer science, ie. advanced compilers often use general CF parsers, and computational linguistics where such parsers are the only option. They are used in a variety of software products including Web browsers, interpreters in computer devices, and data compression programs; and they are used extensively in linguistics.

Customer Reviews (5)

Without peer
There is no book I know of that is more comprehensive, authoritative, or helpful on the topic of parsing.It is no exaggeration to call this book indispensable to anyone working on parsing technology.I mean that quite sincerely -- in terms of careful exposition, in-depth discussion, thoughtful examples, helpful diagrams, and breadth of techniques described, this book is simply the best in existence.

The clearest, most comprehensive survey of the field
I have spent the last six months of my life learning as much as I can about parsing.I own half a shelf of compiler books, and I have flipped through the pages of half a shelf more.

No other book approaches the clarity and comprehensiveness of this book.

When you try to read most literature about parsing, authors tend to throw around a lot of terms without explaining them.What exactly is a "deterministic" parser, a "canonical" parser, a "directional" parser?Grune and Jacobs explain every one of these distinctions lucidly, and put all known algorithms in context of how they compare to the rest of the field.How do the algorithms compare in what languages they can parse, how fast they are, and how much of the work can be done ahead of time?The book addresses all of these trade-offs, but doesn't stop at asymptotic complexity: in chapter 17 (the comparative survey), they note that general parsers may be a factor of ten or so slower than deterministic methods, even though both are linear.This high-level overviewand comparative survey are something I was desperately seeking, and I've found nothing comparable to them anywhere.

There is also a lot of important background information that other authors tend to assume you know: for example, did you know that when authors say "LL" they almost always mean "strong LL" unless they specifically say "full LL?"Are you totally clear on the difference between strong LL, simple LL, and full LL? If you're not sure, Grune and Jacobs will give you all the explanation you need to fully understand.

This book strikes a perfect balance between breadth and depth.All significant algorithms are covered, most with enough detail to fully understand and implement them, but Grune and Jacobs punt on less practical material like proofs or rigorous formal descriptions.That information is never more than a citation away though, thanks to the 417-entry annotated bibliography, which gives you not only references to source material but a paragraph or two describing their key results.

I couldn't be happier about adding this book to my bookshelf of compiler books -- it quickly became the book I refer to most often, and I thank Grune and Jacobs for this superb guide to this vast and diverse field of computer science.

This edition is NOT available on-line
The first edition is available at Grune's web site but this very much expanded second edition is not.

available for free online
just google the first author. he has the pdf version online.

make it approachable
After searching all over for a way to understand the translation field and looking the dragon book and all, this is a great find.I am a practicing software engineer with training in electronics (good old forgotten days) and did not like math classes.This book is a great way to make this topic approachable for a practicing industry developer.Admittedly is a difficult read but if you want to understand something it needs the effort.If you cannot read the # * + etc in the other compiler books this books makes it comprehendible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best Professional guide
Although this book is nearly 30 years old it is still used in madras university as a text for master degree in computer science I have used a lot of books including popular local author and the famous book such as Kenneth Rosen, joshi venkatraman, ect but this seems to be the best and u can read any advance text on discrete math's if u have completed this successfully this one seems to be a launch pad to read many modern text books the material on logic seems terrific. The only thing the authors have left out seems to be is in area of tuning machine and automata theory. And languages and grammar some programs given in the book is based on pl/I which can be easily adjusted the greatest thing in this book is the exercises which are very professional and shows the authors ability for teaching . overall as iam from electronics back ground this book gave me enough stuff to move into computer science ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dated, but still a good introduction to some areas of computer science
In the 1980's, I was teaching mathematics at the college level and we made the decision to offer a course in discrete mathematics for computer science students. While I was trained in mathematics, I did not know the precise meaning of the term in this context. Therefore, I purchased this book and read through it. Shortly after that, I wrote the proposal to add a course in discrete mathematics to our curriculum and it passed all the confirmatory hurdles.
Since the definition of what is considered discrete mathematics for computer science students has changed over the years, the coverage here is not consistent with the modern approach. The chapters are:

*) Mathematical models
*) Mathematical reasoning
*) Sets
*) Binary relations
*) Functions
*) Counting and algorithm analysis
*) Infinite sets
*) Algebras

As you can see, there is no graph theory and there is no mention of switching theory and only one page devoted to Boolean algebra. Therefore, while this book was excellent at the time and remains a solid introduction to some areas of discrete mathematics, the field has moved somewhat beyond this coverage.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Very effective introduction to algorithms
The book used in my graduate Intro to Algorithms course, and I think the follow-on. While I am obviously not as well read in this subject as many of the other reviewers, I can say "it worked", and indeed worked well. A course that has a weak text or teacher will not inspire... A-H-O/DACA and Prof. Carlson made the material exciting, even to an "architecture guy". My interests in grad school in the early 80's revolved around tessellation automata (aka systolic arrays and other highly regular compute structures) and big steaming fast computer structures. A-H-O provided me with the best understanding of the kinds of problems faced by the computers which interested me the most, and the kinds of tools needed to understand computational impact and algorithmic structuring of solutions to them. I sincerely with I hadn't lost my copy with the hundreds of annotations in the margins.

still the classic
One of the classics -- a readable and practical textbook with dozens of problems and projects. Great as a reference to basic data structures and algorithms, too!

Not optional
When I was in grad school starting a course in the Analysis of Algorithms, our professor told us there were only two reasonable choices of text for the course.We could use Knuth TAOCP or AHU.Since we were all students, probably starving, we would use AHU.

The very classic
Excluding Knuth's opera (another dimension), this (AHU) is about the other and only renowned classic algorithms book, deseverdly I'd say, together with Cormen-Leiserson-Rivest's (CLR) "Introduction to Algorithms". With the difference that the first and only edition of AHU has been written 16 years before the first (of the two) editions of CLR.

The two books are quite different in the language and formalism used: more formal and mathematical inclined AHU with respect to CLR. I'd say, the very classic style of his authors who have made history in the CS literature with their books (particularly 2 on algorithms and data structures, 2 on Computer Theory, 2 on Compilers, 1 on CS foundations): as these books have been used in most universities around the world for decades, they've proved to be real milestones in the education of thousands of students.

The books differ also in scope, since AHU is certainly not an encyclopedic collection as CLR does, with his roughly 500 pages against 1000. In spite of this, I'd point out the following: my textbook on Algorithms was CLR, but when we got to Complexity Classes (P-NP and theory behind) we "had" to switch to AHU for the simple reason that CLR did not almost mention at all Turing Machines nor Space Complexity, without which is certainly possible to learn e.g. about NP-TIME completeness, but without which, such a path would equally certainly miss some foundamental topics of Complexity Theory.

All in all, then, imo the book truly deserves 5 stars (and perhaps it would deserve a second, updated, edition too ... possibly, imho, through a bit less revolutionary revision job than they did with "Introduction to Automata Theory, Language and Computation").

As a final note, those looking for a more applicative and self-reference than an educational introductory text, could have a look at the two-volumes opera by the former Knuth's pupil, Robert Sedgewick (possibly the more consolidated C or C++ versions).

An excellent presentation of essential concepts
The book elaborates thoroughly on the basics every programmer should be familiar with. If you are into software development, and have found some unfamiliar concepts in the book description - that's a sure sign that you need this book on your desk. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a textbook on applied probability and statistics with computer science applications for students at the upper undergraduate level. It may also be used as a self study book for the practicing computer science professional. The successful first edition of this book proved extremely useful to students who need to use probability, statistics and queueing theory to solve problems in other fields, such as engineering, physics, operations research, and management science. The book has also been successfully used for courses in queueing theory for operations research students. This second edition includes a new chapter on regression as well as more than twice as many exercises at the end of each chapter. While the emphasis is the same as in the first edition, this new book makes more extensive use of available personal computer software, such as Minitab and Mathematica. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Requirement book for the course and reference book for the future
The book is acceptable; even though I didn't think the quality is matched with what the seller said. I think it is one rate below what he/she said. Anyway, it is OK.

Competent author, poor presentation skill
I was about to review the book the first week I got it.Now two months passed and I think I am ready to review this book.I am a 4th year computer science phd student, with personal interest in statistics, which is not my thesis direction.

1. This book is a thorough book, not only cover the area of traditional probability theory, statistics and stocastics, it also thoroughly discussed queueing theory and other advanced topics, in a level of a special book for the topic.

2. This book is of a lot of typos, some of them are unforgivable - essential errors in formulaes.In the 2nd chapter, there are more than one typo per page.The typos are less in the later chapters, but more than any textbook I ever read.

3. The presentation is not good - it is not presented in a nice flow.I have to check back and forth to see where I am in the context.The language of the book is neither neat nor technical - we found a lot of ambiguities in the exercises - different people has different interpretation.Ironically, the author criticized a lot on other statistician's language, I would believe it is better than his. I would say, one may need to pay 1.8-2.5 times effort to understand this book than a well presented textbook.

4. The notation is too much but not good. In chapter 5., they author made a notation table in the front and for each chapter, there is a notation table in the appendix.Well, it is very normal to find some notations in a chapter not appears in the notation table.

5. The author want to cover too much content.Surely he know about the content but when he feel it is too challenging to cover, he put a citation there. To me, it may be better to just skip that part.

In general, if the author could sit down for a month or two, reread every chapter he wrote, think if it make sense or necessary, and re-present the book and correct the typos, it deserve 4.5 stars.

Easy to read, complete resource -- great book
The book covers a lot of relevant material in sufficient detail. It's hard to find a good book on probability and queueing theory applied to computer science. This book is one of the best I have seen. The author does anexcellent job of explaining the variables used in the different equationscontained in the book, and also clearly explains the context in whichvarious equations are used. Everything is well presented and easy to read.I continue to use the book as a valuable reference and highly recommend it.

Excellent Resource.Highly Recommend.
Excellent resource for statisics and queueing theory.Clear in depth presentation and plenty of examples.Author has a good presentaion style and is humorous as times.Makes you actually want to learn the material. Only fault is that it doesn't have any spreadsheet examples.(understandable though considering when it was published)

Terrifying. I wish 0 stars was an option!
This book may indeed make a good reference for one who regularly deals with the subject matter. However for the uninitiated (me) this book was a truly awful experience. It was used as a textbook my Probability/QueuingTheory class. It is almost completely useless for this purpose. Itslanguage would be clear only to someone holding an advanced degree inmathematics, never to an undergrad. Our instructor had 20 (and growing)handwritten pages of errata.

If your instructor requires this book, youshould waste no time in writing nasty letters to his superiors. You are infor a real trial.

Avoid this book at costs. ... Read more

Product Description

Formal concept analysis has been developed as a field of applied mathematics based on the mathematization of concept and concept hierarchy. It thereby allows us to mathematically represent, analyze, and construct conceptual structures. The formal concept analysis approach has been proven successful in a wide range of application fields.

This book constitutes a comprehensive and systematic presentation of the state of the art of formal concept analysis and its applications. The first part of the book is devoted to foundational and methodological topics. The contributions in the second part demonstrate how formal concept analysis is successfully used outside of mathematics, in linguistics, text retrieval, association rule mining, data analysis, and economics. The third part presents applications in software engineering.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (14)

Awful Book
They book offers no real insight into the exam. The practice test is riddled with errors.

The most inaccurate non-fiction book I have ever encountered
The only redeeming quality of this book is that it eventually becomes a source of entertainment, once you realize that you dare not believe anything you read in it.After just a few test questions, I started laughing out loud at the blatant errors.The book has absolutely no value as a review or practice for the GRE Computer Science test.In the practice exam, many of the questions and answers are filled with inaccuracies, some questions have no correct answer (contrary to claims in the answer section), some answers and justifications don't match the answers presented in the test, and it's clear that whoever wrote some of the answer justifications has no business staying in the field of computer science.If there were any proofreaders and/or technical editors, shame on them for letting this book through.Having seen the poor quality of this book, I will most definitely never purchase (nor read, even in the book is free) anything published by REA. On the bright side, it was printed on recycled paper, but unfortunately is a complete waste of recycled paper.

terrible
(...).I got this book because it was the only thing out there - I thought, whatever the rating, it can't be worse than nothing, at least there's a practice test.That's not a good reason!I was wrong!Just review your textbooks!Or maybe browse Wikipedia, if you don't have any textbooks... or just get some sleep...

I couldn't even force myself to finish the practice test.As another reviewer notes, the very first question has the wrong answer listed.But even before you get to checking your answers, you'll notice all kinds of problems.The test is full of ambiguous or nonsensical wording, as well as simple typos.It does things with its questions that a real standardized test never will: for example, in at least one case it requires a correct answer to one question in order to get the next.Or, another example, it asks multiple questions that are purely about terminology.It has a bizarre balance of content - the question writers seem to be obsessed by context-free grammars.I could go on...

This book is sufficiently bad that:
1) I regret buying it, and marking it up enough to make it impossible to return, as much because it means I gave money to a pack of fraudsters as because I wasted time taking half the practice test.
2) I would never consider buying another book not just from this author, but from this publisher.
3)(...)

a comprehensive mistake
From a senior at the Missouri University of Science and Technology studying both computer science and computer engineering:

The practice exam enclosed in this book does not closely match with the present exam made available by ETS 'for free' online. For example, a much larger percent of the questions in this book's exam are hardware related instead of CS theory or math background related.

Worse yet, this book's review sections prior to the sample exam are shallow at best. The most entertaining of these was the 'More Specialized Knowledge' section, which was seven pages in length, with at most two paragraphs devoted to categories such as 'Networks', 'Protocols', 'Encryption, Compression, and Error Correction', 'Heuristic Search', 'Parallel Computation', etc. There's even a note at the end of this section that attempts to make up for these "surveys" with a feint of reassurance: 'Even when you study every single topic in every practice exam, even if you kept every text from every undergraduate course, even if you take the exam twice, you will miss something.' Profound, at the toddler level.

Most unsettling, the practice test is littered with mistakes. Clear, obvious, blatant mistakes that a freshman in CS could pick out! Prime examples include question 1 - the key incorrectly accomplishes a post-order tree-traversal, question 16 - the key does not apply the definition of the tree depth correctly, and question 29 - where the key cites an answer choice that is not associated with the answer value it claims is correct!

The easiest way to sabotage your test grade.
I guarantee that using this book will lower your CS GRE score, between the misinformation and errors it contains and the time you'll waste that could be spent on more useful review tactics. I can only hope I stopped reading it soon enough.

Interestingly enough, the author of the brief review section goes on a rant about what makes a bad practice test, in which he manages to describe many features of the practice test in the book itself. I wonder if he saw the questions that had been written by an outsourced team, felt a little remorse, and decided to give a bit of a warning to careful readers to atone for the fact that he'll profit from having his name on this piece of trash. Or maybe he never saw the test questions. Or maybe I'm giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt, and he's simply an astounding hypocrite who knows that you can sell anything as a test review book. ... Read more

Product Description
Used in the classroom or as a self-study guide, this is an ideal resource for those taking the AP Computer Science exam in Java.

Pearson Education’s Review for the AP Computer Science Exam in Java  covers everything you need to know to get the score you want. It is written by a former AP Exam writer and is developed to help you take advantage of her experience.

This test prep guide will help you:

Customer Reviews (4)

3rd Ed. includes Review, Case Study and 6 Practice Exams
I'm writing this review because the most recent review is three years out of date and all three were written prior to the 3rd ed. being published.The review (142 pages) is concise and covers topics for both the AP Computer Science A and AB exams.Also included is a chapter on the GridWorld case study.Each of the 21 review sections is followed by a set of 5 practice questions.There are six (3 A and 3 AB) practice exams with 40 multiple-choice questions, 4 free-response questions, solutions and a grading rubric for the free response questions.Also included are a set practical hints for students, glossary and index.I recommend this book for my AP students.One cautionary note; make sure you are ordering the 3rd edition. GOOD LUCK ON THE EXAM!!!

Excellent practice exams, need to add MBS case study
This book includes good review sections that are short and concise. It also includes four excellent practice exams: two for A and two for AB. Unlike some review books, descriptions of problems are very clear. The free response questions are about the level of actual exams, while the multiple-choice problems may be slightly easier than actual ones.

As pointed out by other reviews, the book does not include MBS case study. It also does not provide explanations on the answers. It could also improve the review section by adding some more details; yet still keep the reviews in its concise style.

Good Review, Horrible Explanations.
This is an okay book, it has a good review(and not very long like Barron's book), good questions, and adequete tips for both the multiple choice [section] and the free response.One big problem I had with this book is that there are NO explanations for any of the answers to the questions.If there is a review book for any test and no explanations for any of the answers it hase a serious problem.Also, there wasn't anything that showed you how to grade the practice tests, not even how to calculate a raw score.At least show us how to calculate a raw score, then we will have just some idea of how well we are doing.If you are going to buy this book I would suggest buying either Litvin's or Barron's (though it reteaches you the material) book along with this book.

Good book, but doesn't cover Marine Biology Sim Case Study
The Practice Exams in this book are good in general, but be careful they don't include the Marine Biology Simulation Case Study at all. (Litvin's book does cover the MBS case study adequately.) ... Read more

Product Description
Illustrates key computing concepts using examples in the most popular programming languages. This is an essential guide for the hundreds of thousands of students studying Introduction to Computer Science or Introduction to Programming, presenting the basic concepts of computerscience and illlustrating them with examples in C/C++, and Java. More than 285,000 college majors and 11,000 high school Advanced Placement candidates are enrolled in required Computing Science courses. Explains algorithm development and data abstraction. Supplements leading computer science textbooks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good supplement for anyone learning basic computer programming
This is a pretty good introduction to basic undergraduate ideas in computer science including different number systems (hex, binary), computing structures (components, architecture), and the concept of program layout and algorithms. This book does not go deep into these concepts, but at least it makes the student aware that these issues exist and gives a very brief idea of how they work. In other words, don't expect any in-depth examination of computational complexity in the section on algorithms. The lion's share of the book is dedicated to simple programming concepts. First the ideas of variables, constants, operators, operator precedence, and input/output are introduced. Then these concepts are used to examine the constructs of control structures, functions, subroutines, arrays, strings, files, and data structures. There is a very basic chapter on object oriented programming that includes the advantages of object orientation as well as an introduction to terminology and program structure. Simple programs are shown as examples and also given as exercises in four popular languages - C, C++, Visual Basic, and Java.

This book was written in 1999, so the properties of the four featured programming languages have changed some, but not enough to nullify the usefulness of this book. I would say that this book is suitable for high school and freshman college students getting their first look at the basics of computing and of programming in any language. This book does not substitute as an introductory textbook for learning the four programming languages used, but it would make a nice supplement.

overview of 4 popular languages
This book is unique in that it is both low-priced and provides an overview of four popular languages- C, C++, Java and VisualBasic (I couldn't find anything on Pascal and Fortran, unlike what the Publisher's reviewimplies). It is sometimes heavy going and or lacks detail in places, andwill need to be supplemented by other books and courses. Still, it'sgoodvalue for the price. ... Read more

Product Description

University studies in computing require the ability to pass from a concrete problem to an abstract representation, reason with the abstract structure, and return with useful solutions to the specific situation.

The tools for developing these skills are in part qualitative – concepts such as set, relation, function, and structures such as trees and well-founded orders. They are also in part quantitative – notably elementary combinatorics and finite probability. Recurring in all of these are instruments of proof, both purely logical ones (such as proof by contradiction) and mathematical (the various forms of induction).

Features:

• Explains the basic mathematical tools required by students as they set out in their studies of Computer or Information Science

• Explores the interplay between qualitative thinking and calculation

• Teaches the material as a language for thinking, as much as knowledge to be acquired

• Uses an intuitive approach with a focus on examples for all general concepts

• Provides numerous exercises, solutions and proofs to deepen and test the reader’s understanding

• Includes highlight boxes that raise common queries and clear away confusions

• Tandems with additional electronic resources including slides on author's website

http://david.c.makinson.googlepages.com

This easy-to-follow text allows readers to carry out their computing studies with a clear understanding of the basic finite mathematics and logic that they will need. Written explicitly for undergraduates, it requires only a minimal mathematical background and is ideal for self-study as well as classroom use.

Customer Reviews (1)

Great introductory maths textbook for CS students
This is a great maths book for first year Computer Science undergraduates. It assembles in a single text most of the basic mathematical tools required in the study of Computer Science, ranging from sets and relations, to combinatorics and probabilities, to trees and logic.

Most importantly, the book is easy to follow even for someone who is not a great fan of mathematics; in fact, these are the people that will probably benefit most from this book. Concepts are presented very clearly, in a lively prose, with extra care in providing an intuitive grasp of formal notions, and attention in clarifying subtle details. This is further assisted by an on-going dialog spread throughout the book between two fictional characters, Alice and Mad Hatter (borrowed from Lewis Carroll's classical novel), discussing subtleties in the text. Carefully selected exercises in each chapter help to reinforce students understanding of the text.

Overall, a great introductory textbook. I strongly recommend it to anyone starting studies in Computer Science.
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Product Description
Numerical analysis is the branch of mathematics concerned with the theoretical foundations of numerical algorithms for the solution of problems arising in scientific applications. Designed for courses in numerical analysis and as a reference for practicing engineers and scientists, this book presents the theoretical concepts of numerical analysis and the practical justification of these methods through computer examples with the latest version of MATLAB. The book addresses a variety of questions ranging from the approximation of functions and integrals to the approximate solution of algebraic, transcendental, differential and integral equations, with particular emphasis on the stability, accuracy, efficiency and reliability of numerical algorithms. The CD-ROM which accompanies the book includes source code, a numerical toolbox, executables, and simulations. FEATURES*Presents each numerical method by first providing examples and geometric motivation, then the steps to perform the computation, and finally the mathematical derivation of the process *Provides short programs in MATLAB that can be used for scientific applications with or without modifications *Shows the visual representation of mathematical concepts in 2D graphics and is compatible with the current MATLAB v.7.5. *Accompanied by a CD-ROM featuring source code, executables, figures, and simulations *Includes an introduction to MATLAB commands *Features an Instructor s Resource Disc for use as a textbook BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Number Systems and Errors. 2. Nonlinear Equations. 3. Systems of Linear Equations. 4. Approximating Functions. 5. Numerical Differentiation and Integration. 6. Ordinary Differential Equations. 7. The Eigenvalue problems. Appendix A. Mathematical Preliminaries. B. Introduction to MATLAB. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An outstanding reference.
College-level courses strong in numerical analysis as well as those catering to engineers and scientists will appreciate this introduction: the first to present the theory of numerical analysis and the practical justifications of methodology using the latest version of MATLAB. This will also make a fine college-level text for primary or supplemental reading: it provides short programs in MATLAB to be used for scientific applications, surveys MATLAB commands and processes, includes a CD-ROM featuring source code and simulations, and reinforces theory with applications. An outstanding reference. ... Read more

Product Description
This new edition of Invitation to Computer Science follows the breadth-first guidelines recommended by CC2001 to teach computer science topics from the ground up.The authors begin by showing that computer science is the study of algorithms, the central theme of the book, then move up the next five levels of the hierarchy: hardware, virtual machine, software, applications, and ethics. Utilizing rich pedagogy and a consistently engaging writing style, Schneider and Gersting provide students with a solid grounding in theoretical concepts, as well as important applications of computing and information technology.A laboratory manual and accompanying software is available as an optional bundle with this text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Book and Service
Looks exactly how the description said it would. Also recieved the book sooner then I expected. Would buy from them again.

Programming Languages
An excellent text. This is a book if you wish to study Computer Science in general. It does cover the differences between programming languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN, C/C++, Ada, C#, and .NET. It explains a lot about algorithms, bulding blocks, computer systems organization, system software, computer networks, compilers and language translation, computation, databases, information security, artificial intelligence.

Invitation to Computer Science - Java Edition doesn't Have Enough Java
The text is interesting, but too broad for anyone wishing to learn Java programming. ... Read more