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Rating: 
Summary: The Encyclopedia of Algorithms
Review: (...) This is a book about the science of algorithms. Algorithm's are either right or wrong.Knuth uses the MIX programming language thoughout, and if you hope to learn programming by reading this book, you should look elsewhere. Someday we'll have 2^40 registers and that will introduce a new set of problems. And yet we will still be trying to make our programs work faster on some, as yet, uninvented architecture. And people will still be reading Knuth. A good reference for serious computer science students. Others should look at O'Reilly. That have some really good books. This is an encyclopedia of what is known about sorting and searching and what computers can do. It is nothing else. Graduate students in computer science (especially those in theory, algorithms and the occasional compiler fan) will benefit. Hackers will probably not benefit from this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Encyclopedia of Algorithms
Review: (...) This is a book about the science of algorithms. Algorithm's are either right or wrong. Knuth uses the MIX programming language thoughout, and if you hope to learn programming by reading this book, you should look elsewhere. Someday we'll have 2^40 registers and that will introduce a new set of problems. And yet we will still be trying to make our programs work faster on some, as yet, uninvented architecture. And people will still be reading Knuth. A good reference for serious computer science students. Others should look at O'Reilly. That have some really good books. This is an encyclopedia of what is known about sorting and searching and what computers can do. It is nothing else. Graduate students in computer science (especially those in theory, algorithms and the occasional compiler fan) will benefit. Hackers will probably not benefit from this book.
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Summary: Pioneer in sorting algorithms awaits new edition by Knuth.
Review: As the inventor of numerous algorithms described in Prof. Knuth's Vol. 3, 1st edition, I am very interested in his 2nd edition, when available. My 1956 MIT thesis, "Information Sorting in the Application of Electronic Digital Computers to Business Operations," was very well treated in his first edition in 1973. I anxiously await his 2nd.
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Summary: Pioneer in sorting algorithms awaits new edition by Knuth.
Review: As the inventor of numerous algorithms described in Prof. Knuth's Vol. 3, 1st edition, I am very interested in his 2nd edition, when available. My 1956 MIT thesis, "Information Sorting in the Application of Electronic Digital Computers to Business Operations," was very well treated in his first edition in 1973. I anxiously await his 2nd.
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Summary: Just try sorting and searching with out this book.
Review: I just bought the book I needed out of the set. I needed to build a database that did not use any commercial package (this gives full access and no royalties). This book saved my bacon. I almost did not buy it when all I saw in it was math. But I was desperate and it paid off. Turns out you could not explain it any other way. I use it primarily for balanced trees. I may try some thing more exotic later. I can not tell you about the other volumes but this one will defiantly pay for it's self.
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Summary: TOO EASY
Review: I think only the maths parts are interesting and the rest of the book is too easy.
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Summary: SEARCH AND SORT FOR A BETTER BOOK
Review: People buy Knuth's books for snob appeal, which is to say that they like to put the 3-book set on their shelves as an advertisement for their own intellegence. What they don't realize is that truly talented individuals will see beyond this kind of cheap PR stunt. "Look, I read Knuth... boy, I must be a genius!" Donald Knuth obviously has offered extra credit to students who provide him with glowing reviews on amazon. "Oh geeze, this is the best book ever. Bow down and kiss his feet." For all we know, he may even offer a cash reward. This is just one of those cases where the myth of Knuth has overshadowed reality. Is Knuth well known? Yes. Has Knuth been around forever. Yes. Has knuth published countless articles? Yes. Are his books used in day-to-day coursework on top-ten engineering schools. NO, THEY ARE NOT. For data structures, most *working* professors would refer you to Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest (or maybe Robert Sedgewick). For scientific computing, most *active researchers* would suggest a book like Michael Heath's. For random numbers, you'd be better off with Kelton and Law's book on simulation. For computer architecture, everyone uses Patterson and Hennessey. See a pattern here? The truth is that fields mature, and textbooks get better and better. Knuth has decided that it's too much work to stay current; he'd rather stick to 6-bit MIX assembler code and his precious universal truths. Well, Professor Knuth, I have news for you: there are more recent books out there that do a much better job at stating "universal truths" with the added benefit of being easily readable. I don't buy the excuse that it's too much work to re-write code examples in different languages. Isn't this what graduate students were made for Prof. Knuth? Hell, you don't even have to pay them that much. Just try not to speak down to them, oh great one. I also don't buy the excuse that he uses MIX so that the reader can look at the finer details of performance and memory consumption. Isn't this the same man who said that "premature optimization is the root of all evil?" In other words, don't optimize; use a better algorithm. You don't need to look at assembly code to analyze algorithms, O(n) analysis should suffice...at least, it's more of a "universal truth" approach. By trying to write a complete survey of computer science, Knuth trys to be everything to everyone. In doing so, he does nothing as well as he could have (and certainly not as well as the textbooks currently being used). What he has ended up with is an expensive white elephant, that will look pretty while it collects dust. Stop making excuses Professor Knuth. Get off your d@mn organ and get back to work.
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Summary: The best reference for all programmers in all levels
Review: The book is quite beneficial for all programmers in all ages. Not only the foundations of the programmer be improved, some techniques are also introduced in the best fashion yet
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Summary: The best known source of seaching and sorting algorithms
Review: This book in a keystone work of computer science. Now and then one needs a "binary search" or a related algorithm, and Knuth's book has it. Such algorithms, although basic, are notoriously easy to get wrong. The style of writing requires the reader to have some mathematics and programming background. Otherwise a reader will need to study the writing style and algorithm description. Computer Scientists are waiting for this skilled practitioner to finish his life's work, namely Vols. 4-7. Let us hope the author has the patience and time to accomplish it.
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Summary: Legendary book
Review: This book is bible of computer programming. It contains most detailed explanation of searching and sorting methods I ever found in a book. Contains all internal sorting and searching and external sorting and searching algorithms. The only drawback of the book is that all algorithms are written in MIX - some kind of assembler, and because of that they are hard to read.
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