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Summary: Required reading
Review: A generation grew up on Knuth, yet many new coders simply do not know who he is.The Art of Computer Programming is required reading for anyone serious about computer programming, it is as simply as that.
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Summary: The classic book in programming.
Review: A must for all programmers. It is star of stars
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Summary: Definitive
Review: As Knuth himself says, it is impossible for any one person to keep up with all the research in computer science, but these 3 volumes do a remarkably good job of distilling the most important results and explaining them with mathematical rigor. Each volume contains 2 chapters. Ch. 1, Basic Concepts: mathematical foundations and a description of MIX, a hypothetical machine (now available in software emulations). Ch. 2, Information Structures: lists, trees, memory allocation, garbage collection. Ch. 3, Random Numbers: how to produce series of "random" numbers and test their statistical properties. Ch. 4, Arithmetic: algorithms for integer and floating-point arithmetic. Ch. 5, Sorting: both in memory and on disks or tapes. Ch. 6, Searching: sequential, binary, hashing. Despite the detailed coverage of the topics, which often involves esoteric mathematical notation, the author's lively style makes the algorithms and the main theoretical results relatively easy to grasp. If all you care about is getting a program to run, buy another book; but if you really want to understand how and why software works, there's nothing quite like this.
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Summary: Perfectly
Review: Coo
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Summary: I'll give this 100 stars.
Review: Donal Knuth is truly a genius in the Computer Science fields. I read these books to find some errata :), but couldn't find one so far.. and I even enjoy reading the books meanwhile..
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Summary: Much more here than mere computer science.
Review: Dr. Knuth writes as much of mind as he does of computer programming. What the reader sees and learns is how mentality moves and is moved by the algorithmic distribution of information. To grok the content, waiting is fullness.
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Summary: Wonderful Classic, Timeless
Review: Every serious computer science student will see repeated references in other books to this wonderful set by Donald Knuth, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford. He is acclaimed by many as the foremost computer programmer in progamming's brief sixty-year history. Its the best resource for the typical algorithm problem sets in most, traditional C and C++ courses. Those who see and enjoy programming as applied mathematics will find some spare cash to buy it. Having this set on the shelf is somewhat like having a set of Shakespeare - its the best but not for everyone. One kind of expects to find Volume 1 of this set in the nightstand drawer at Silicon Valley hotels.
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Summary: Not what I expected!
Review: For anyone who is new to computer programming and wants to get a indepth background of its history and evolution, I DO NOT recommend this book. When I received it I was very excited because it came in three nicely bound hard cover volumes. But, when I looked inside, all I saw was massive amounts of mathematical equations. I felt like I was reading a mathematics book and it was completely unreadable, overwhelming, & intimidating. I guess, being a novice, I expected something much more readable. So, I blame myself but for anyone like me who thinks the title of the book will give them an enjoyable "read" on computer programming...forget it.
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Summary: Precisely, but let us keep our logic straight.
Review: From the review by Ekalavya Nishada: "It is true it uses MIX and does not cover the last 20 years of advances in computer science yet but if you cant understand MIX you have no hope of understanding the mathemtical analysis of algorithms in these books nor appreciate a quality book like this." But this is precisely the point! Indeed, w/o MIX you won't be able to really read TAoCP, right, but let us keep our logic straight. Do you need MIX for anything other than reading this book? Nope. Does it add anything to the subject matter? Nope (in fact, it detracts from it; C would be more illustrative and realistic.) Is learning it so easy as to make the issue unworthy of bringing it up? No, learning it will take quite a bit of effort. Yet it *is* a precondition to being able to read TAoCP. And, btw, it's not that MIX "doesn't cover the advances of the last 20 years" -- I suspect, it simply has nothing in common with reality, whether today or 20 years ago. Is it worth your time to dig into this piece of gratuitous esoterica simply in order to be able to read the book? Is TAoCP *that* great and indispensable? Everyone will decide on one's own, but personally I think not, not today -- there are now quite adequate alternatives that do not tax the reader unnecessarily. Life is short; its demands are many; not everyone's a tenured professor... (And to propose that the only alternative to TAoCP is "O'Reilly cookbooks" is a wild exaggeration: there are just as in-depth *yet readable* books to choose from. Twenty years ago, maybe this wasn't the case, but life didn't stop then -- our then-beloved books and us, we all have to face a threat of obsolescence <g>; let's not mistake our sentimental rememberances of the past for eternal verities.)
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Summary: So close but yet...
Review: Having seen loads of reviews about this book being essential for any computer programmer, I am disappointed to learn that this actually means only Machine Language programmers. Not C, not C++, not Fortran, Cobol or Delphi...Not even Basic. The author has seen it fit to ignore all popular programming languages to use for his examples' code. Instead, he uses a meta-Assembly language which he has made up out of thin air, for this important purpose. I can't tell you how p***** off I am not to be able to understand a damn word of his coded algorithms. The excuse of being able to go 'low level' inside the computers memory and such is too thin, I would happily pay twice the marked price if the examples were in C, C++ or any language higher than this indecipherable pseudo-ASM! It is such a shame that this is the case because the books are of a very high quality indeed, the author has a rare talent for conveying these fantastic concepts using plain english, but I'm at a loss as to how to implement tham on an actual computer. Which rather defeats the point of this set. And to make things worse, its not even a standard ASM dialect, not even close. Unless you are an ASM god (at least you shouldn't have any trouble understanding and 'porting' his pretend code) and/or Masters degree mathematician, I would steer clear of this one. Why why why not C++, Mr Knuth, please tell me! :(
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