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Summary: Edward Garson
Review: Julian Bucknall writes the Algorithms Alfresco column in The Delphi Magazine. He is also one of the chief programmers at TurboPower, an award winning Delphi programming tools company. He is an expert on algorithms and data structures, and writes very clearly, explaining each algorithm/data structure in a stepwise manner in tandem with the source code. Julian also demonstrates an in-depth knowledge of os kernel routines (low-level memory allocation and such), enabling him to write highly optimized versions of classic algorithms and data structures: this book is NOT just pascal translations of material you learned in college. I strongly recommend that all Delphi/Kylix developers buy it. I would say, however, that intermediate to advanced programmers will benefit more from it, because they will be able to apply principles from the material to other areas of their programming, while less experienced programmers will be happy to black box the tools. And they should be! This book is replete with usable tools.
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Summary: Excellent
Review: Not only does it cover some interesting algorithms, but he even starts off the book by telling you about debugging techniques that you might not have heard of.An excellent Delphi book, very rare high-quality !
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Summary: Good "Bread and Butter" programmers reference
Review: The book covers arrays,lists, stacks and Queues, sorting, random number generation and testing, hasing and hash tables, binary trees, state machines and expressions and data compression. It's decent coverage of the topics, well explained concepts and is supported where required, by diagrams and source code. One of the things I didn't like about the book is that it contains too many long printouts of source code, rather than devoting space and effort on explanations and concepts. The CD should contain endless reams of source code, not the book! what this means is that the book is twice as large as Rod Stephans excellent "Ready to run algorithms" Series, and only contains about 70% of it's goodness. Rod did a much better job of compressing the big picture explanation into print, and more econmomical use of example code. Also, the author relies on, and uses pointers far too much within his code, rather than using Delphi's other ways and means. I think this detracts from the elegance and simplicity of many implementations of the algorithms. Having said that, if you you already own Rod Stephans bible on algorithms, this is a reasonable back up purchase, if you have spare cash.
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Summary: Must be a great book
Review: The book isn't even out yet and two people already reviewed it and gave it high marks. It must be great, considering those people who already reviewed it couldn't have possibly read it! Perhaps they were able to rate it by looking at the cover art.
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Summary: Full of Gems
Review: This book is packed full of gems of wisdom that transcend Delphi. It's not just about algorithms, data structures and Delphi - it's about the science of computing and it's about being a good programmer. As a C++ developer (primarily) with an eye on Delphi I found that this book really made me think about how I program and how I solve problems. I have read dozens of books on C++, Pascal, Delphi, COM, DCOM, C# and .NET, many of them very good. But this is one of those rare books that goes beyond teaching you a particular technology. It will help you become a better problem solver and it will help you write better code. You will not be disappointed in adding this book to your personal library. Ten spring cleanings from now, when you're developing in whatever the current technology flavor of the month is at the time, this book will still be on your shelf - and it won't have any dust on it.
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Summary: Full of Gems
Review: This book is packed full of gems of wisdom that transcend Delphi. It's not just about algorithms, data structures and Delphi - it's about the science of computing and it's about being a good programmer. As a C++ developer (primarily) with an eye on Delphi I found that this book really made me think about how I program and how I solve problems. I have read dozens of books on C++, Pascal, Delphi, COM, DCOM, C# and .NET, many of them very good. But this is one of those rare books that goes beyond teaching you a particular technology. It will help you become a better problem solver and it will help you write better code. You will not be disappointed in adding this book to your personal library. Ten spring cleanings from now, when you're developing in whatever the current technology flavor of the month is at the time, this book will still be on your shelf - and it won't have any dust on it.
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Summary: Julian Bucknall it's really a GREAT GENIUS
Review: This book it's of essential importance for all mid-level delphi programmers. If you like to know the low-level working of common data structures of the IT software engineering (or if you like to build one), then buy hands down this book: it's the best around. Moreover the ezdsl (the author free library) is the fastest implementation that i have seen. Personally i look that ezdsl/delphi is faster than the STL equivalent under c++.
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Summary: Worth the wait!
Review: This is a book that I've been waiting for for a long time (according to the acknowledgements, Julian has worked on it from April 1999 until February 2001, probably even longer). But it has been worth it, because it's an excellent book about algorithms and data structures implemented in Delphi (and Kylix) - usually version independent. The book consists of 12 chapters. But even before the first chapter Julian takes on the question of "why a book on Delphi algorithms?" in the introduction. He explains that a number of Computer Science algorithms books are hardly practical, and the practical books are mainly for C, C++, or Java. This is a book about algorithms and data structures using Delphi (for Windows, but also Kylix for Linux), with a lot of focus on practical and useful techniques that make sense. A great plus is that the code in the book works for every version of Delphi and Kylix (and probably also in C++Builder), and I'm fairly confident it will remain working in the next version(s) of Delphi and Kylix to come. A bonus point is the syntax high-lighting in the source code listings. A small effort for the author/publisher, but a great help for the reader who sees the source code for the first time.
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Summary: Awesome algorithms book
Review: This is an awesome book! It's got a really pretty cover. I can't wait to get my hands on it.
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Summary: A much needed book which fills a niche
Review: Traditional Pascal and Cobol have enjoyed this type of book for some time as well as C but Delphi has yet to be widely accepted in the academic community as a means to teach complex algorithms and data structures. In graduate school I had a course by the same name as the title of this book and was required to suffer Cobol. How I wish Delphi had been the language of choice. Mr. Buchnall proves, as I have emphasized, that Delphi is as excellent language to teach underlying programming principles. His clarity and fast pace make this book a valuable tool in my knowledge repository. I found myself racing through complex structures with ease. I truly believe Julian is elevating himself among giants such as Knuth, Graham, Meyer and others who struggle to articulate the processes that many of us have stumbled upon but were seldom smart enough to remember where. The pages are already dog-eared as I jump back and forth, implementing things I had been taught a long time ago yet failed to utilize. I would like to see a graduate level text using Delphi along the same lines. It is time for Latin and Cobol to step aside. Delphi has come of age and proven itself an excellent teaching tool. Mr. Bucknall has made a significant contribution towards that end.
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