Mathematical Structures for Computer Science: A Modern Treatment of Discrete Mathematics

Customer Reviews:

A good reference.......2005-07-25

I used this book in my Data Structures class. It has sample problems with solutions in the back of the book so you understand what they were talking about (unfortunately, I cannot say the same for a lot of data structures texts) The sample problems were also good for review for an exam. This was one of the few Computer Science textbooks that I have actually kept as a reference.

CS Professors Love This Book. CS Students Hate It........2005-05-04

If you are seasoned in the ways of computer science and mathematics, you will probably love this book. However if you are new to the concepts presented in the pages of this book, you will probably hate it. It is particularly bad once you really start getting into the meat of things, around chapter three. The examples and explanations are utterly terse.

Here is how the book defines "cardinality": "...The number of elements in a finite set is the cardinality of the set, so this would be a set of cardinality k." That is the best explanation the book offers as to the meaning of the word cardinality, a word my professor used close to fifty times every lecture, a word that really deserves better explanation than a single sentence, especially with regard to sets.

If I were providing something constructive the author, I would probably say that definitions should be much easier to find and much more detailed and examples of definitions should cover all the angles. I suppose my largest complaint with the book would simply be that if you are a CS student and you REALLY NEED a strong foundation in the concepts of discrete math, this book doesn't quite get there. The book misses its target audience.

Not quite the best, but close.......2005-02-19

Although there is now consensus over the coverage in a first course in discrete mathematics, the level of difficulty one finds in books for this audience has a wide range. Some opt for the basic approach, with very little rigor, and anything labeled as a proof is either trivial or an advanced waving of the hands. Notational complexity is kept to a minimum, which is fine for the beginner, but limits the value as the student goes on into more advanced courses. On the other end, there are those where rigorous proofs abound, it reads more like a book for traditional math majors rather than one largely designed for computer science majors.
While Gersting is somewhere in the middle, the slant is more towards the advanced. The first four chapters cover logic, the fundamentals of proofs, set theory and relations and functions respectively. This order is in complete agreement with my beliefs. I would not give any book that does not start with these basic topics a second look much less consider adopting it. Graphs are covered in chapters five and six; Boolean algebra in seven and the theory of computation is covered in chapter eight. The treatment is on the high end, but still within the bounds of a first course in discrete mathematics. Worked examples are everywhere and a large number of exercises are at the end of each section. Practice problems are embedded inside the chapters and solutions to all the practice problems are found in an appendix.
While I believe I have found a better book to use in my discrete class, this one is my second choice. In fact I successfully used it for two years, until I replaced it. The primary reasons for the change was that the new book has biographical sketches of mathematicians (something I adore), the font is larger and there are more solutions to the exercises.

A very valuable book!!.......2003-04-20

With all due respect to some of the other reviewers, I found this book extremely helpful and extremely well written. Much of the polarity in the reviews may stem from the fact that different people have different learning models and corresponding expectations. As a career changer with several degrees in other engineering disciplines, I found many of the explanations very helpful and very appropriate relative to my current learning/retraining objectives. With the examples and practice problems, this book provides what I believe to be an excellent introduction to a wide range of topics relating to the mathematical basis for computer science. I find that I typically consult this book first before moving to other more rigorous (and often more obscure) treatments of the same topics.

Nice book!.......2003-01-07

I've been studying this book for a semester and I found this a good one. However there are too much helpful exercises, I think the book should have all the answers and be more thorough. Because most of time it's hard to understand it when studying alone.

Discrete Mathematical Structures, Fifth Edition

Average customer rating:

Excellent text
Canned methods, sloppy....
A fine and useful book.
Difficult, Innacurate, but Topical
Great Reference for Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis!

Discrete Mathematical Structures, Fifth Edition
Bernard Kolman , Robert C. Busby , and Sharon Cutler Ross
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0130457973

Book Description

Combining a careful selection of topics with coverage of their genuine applications in computer science, this book, more than any other in this field, is clearly and concisely written, presenting the basic ideas of discrete mathematical structures in a manner that is understandable. Limiting its scope and depth of topics to those that readers can actually utilize, this book covers first the fundamentals, then follows with logic, counting, relations and digraphs, functions, order relations and structures, trees, graph theory, semigroups and groups, languages and finite-state machines, and groups and coding. With its comprehensive appendices and index, this book can be an excellent reference work for mathematicians and those in the field of computer science.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent text.......2007-10-01

I am reviewing the 5th edition. This is an excellent text, easy to learn from, with a crystal clear presentation. I've found few errors in this edition and the ones that I have found are non-substantive typos, nothing more. Each chapter is broken out into digestible sections, and each section is followed by a wealth of problems. The problems are progressive, starting out very easy, but none of them are too hard to do: the authors' intent is clearly to build the reader's skill with the material. The problems are a mix of routine computations and some proofs. Answers to all odd numbered problems are given in the back of the book, making the text valuable for self-study.

I disagree with the reviewer who criticized the book on the basis of the institutional affiliations of the authors. The text should be judged on its merits: If you're looking for a terse, densely compacted thicket of mathematical symbolism, then this is not your book. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a clear, solid presentation that flows naturally from one topic to the next, then this is the book you should purchase.

Canned methods, sloppy...........2004-02-28

THe credentials of the authors speak in bounds... Drexel University and Georgia Perimeter College???!?!?! GPC is a 2-year. Anyways, all that aside, the presentation of the material is horrible. Obviously, the background of these authors is that of 1,2,3 methods, with absolutely no concept of any concepts behind the material. The problems/examples are unrelated to the material in the chapters, and no preparation was given to answer them. Our professor even said that he emailed the writer to change the wording in a few questions, the writer agreed wholeheartedly, and yet the question remained in the next edition....
IN the age of Chubb Institute and quickie-degree schools, this book would do fine. Math, in my opinion, while can be learned with these methods, is useless without the knowledge of how it came about, why it is used, and theory or explanation/background. This book provides none of this. I do not recommend it to anyone. ESPECIALLY not one of "beginner" status(...)

A fine and useful book........2002-01-07

I have never been a math wizard, but I really enjoyed this book, and have kept it around because it is so helpful.

I appreciate the organization of the book. If you want to study a chapter out of sequence, the opening page tells you which earlier chapters are necessary to understand the new one. The exercises in each section are progressive - you can understand the topic with the first few problems, and by the time you work through the section you will REALLY understand it.
I used the fourth edition, published in 2000, so perhaps there are some inaccuracies in the earlier edition. I found few examples of wrong answers.

Difficult, Innacurate, but Topical.......1999-04-11

The textbook is difficult to understand and many of the answers in the back of the book are wrong. Also it addresses lots of good topics but mostle hard to understand.

Great Reference for Abstract Algebra and Real Analysis!.......1999-03-11

I thought that it was easy to read, the examples weren't difficult to follow and the definitions and proofs were great! I used it many times as a reference for Abstract Algebra (that book was awful) and Intro to Real Analysis. Great buy and a keeper for all students of Mathematics! Also, there is a reference of mathematical symbols in case you should forget what something means.

Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability, Second Edition (Jones & Bartlett Computer Science)

Average customer rating:

Second Review of Dr. Hein's Book
Excellent book!
This book is not very good.
A Good Text
Discrete math for real software engineers

Discrete Structures, Logic, and Computability, Second Edition (Jones & Bartlett Computer Science)
HeinfJamesL
Manufacturer: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0763718432

Book Description

This book introduces the beginning computer science student to some of the fundamental ideas and techniques used by computer scientists today, focusing on discrete structures, logic, and computability.

Customer Reviews:

Second Review of Dr. Hein's Book.......2004-07-16

Now, since I took two terms of classes that used Dr. Hein's book, I had internal urges to write emails to Dr. Hein and praise him for his book and his lab manual (but I never did wrote to him, though). Instead, I decided to write to a broader audience, here at Amazon. I found the book ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, a Holistic Bible of Computer Logic so to speak, for every CS student. I have read and re-read the book and still reading it today, during the Summer Break. I scanned the whole book with a flatbed scanner because I needed to look things up often even as I studied other courses at Portland State University. I also highly recommend Dr. Hein's Prolog Lab Manual which guides you through the experiments designed to help understanding the Book's material. Marvelous Lab Manual, Dr. Hein! It is my opinion that Doctor Hein has a profound vision of where Computer Science is going and that's why he designed his Book and his lab manual this way. The Book and Lab Manual helped me tremendously to understand recursion and logic.
PS: I never write reviews of books, but this particular book have always prompted urges to praise it.

Excellent book!.......2003-08-27

This is an excellent book! Easy to read and understand. I am an "A" student, at Portland State University and I think that people who wrote bad reviewes of this book did not read the book (just like they might read every 50th page of any other book). Bill Gates once said that every person is born to be able to understand only up to a certain level of abstraction. Just like some of us are born to be able to lift 500 lbs. and some only 50 lbs. In addition, a person has to have some background to be able to understand more advanced topics. The book is most excellent.

This book is not very good........2002-12-14

This book makes a better door stop, than a academic text book. Having taken the classes at PSU I know this book front to back. The dosent really explain the subjects well, the book as a whole lacks focus. The first half of the book is horribly written, and abismal when actually compated to a discrete mathmatics, and/or group theory book. So much so there is a bit of a running joke about it in the math department. I would recomend to any CS student to avoid the text book and study from a regular math book instead.

A Good Text.......2002-01-03

I've taught from this text for 8 years. The excellent students have no problem with it. The average students complain that it is hard to understand. I don't think any text covering these topics could be easier to understand, actually.

There are plenty of examples in the text. However, the exercises tend to be significantly more complex than the examples. The answers to many exercises are in the back of the book, which is a great help to students.

Discrete math for real software engineers.......2000-04-06

Software designs must address trade-offs among factors such as performance, usability, completeness, timeliness, correctness and so on. Judging from the number of bugs people encounter, software engineers seem to be trading away too much of the correctness factor for something else.

Hein's text addresses this issue by placing much greater emphasis on ideas from logic and methods of proof than most other books on discrete mathematics, such as the popular text by Rosen. In addition, Hein includes material relating important software concepts to abstract algebra, and he does this without slighting other common topics of discrete mathematics, such as sets, relations, functions, counting, automata, and computability. Software engineers who have learned from Hein's text will have practical tools that they can use to deal with the software correctness factor more effectively.

Book Description

Create sound software designs with data structures that use modern object-oriented design patterns! Author Bruno Preiss presents the fundamentals of data structures and algorithms from a modern, object-oriented perspective. The text promotes object-oriented design using Java and illustrates the use of the latest object-oriented design patterns. Virtually all the data structures are discussed in the context of a single class hierarchy. This framework clearly shows the relationships between data structures and illustrates how polymorphism and inheritance can be used effectively. Key Features of the Text
* All data structures are presented using a common framework. This shows the relationship between the data structures and how they are implemented.
* Object-oriented design patterns are used to demonstrate how a good design fits together and transcends the problem at hand.
* A single Java software design is used throughout the text to provide a better understanding of the operation of complicated data structures.
* Just-in-time presentation of mathematical analysis techniques introduces students to mathematical concepts as needed.
Visit the Text's Web Site A comprehensive web site is available for users of the text at www.wiley.com/college/preiss. The site includes:
* The Web Book (a hypertext version of the complete book)
* Links to the Java Source Code (all the program examples from the text)
* Opus5 Package (a Java package comprised of all the source code from the text)
* Documentation (source code documentation)
* Demo Applets (various Java applets that illustrate data structures and algorithms from the text)
* Archive (JAR format archive of the source code from the text)
* Front Matter (table of contents and preface)
* Solutions Manual (password required)
* Errata

Customer Reviews:

Terribly written.......2005-01-30

I have taken several math and computer programming courses. This it the worst book I have ever been forced used. I had a hard time recalling some of the math that is used immediately, the explanations are terrible to say the least. I tried for hours to figure it out using just that book. When I got home I found a different reference and had it figure out in one minutes. So basically the problems I am assigned I have to learn from another source to do... that shouldn't be. Find another author that cares if he makes sense or not, one that doesn't assume you will understand it regardless of how it is explained.... "such is higher education these days" I wish I could slap that guy.

Average and TOO much mathematics.......2004-09-07

The initial sections of the book focus on too much mathematical formula without providing plain English examples especially in the asymptotic analysis sections. Isn't there a book out there which explains in plain simple English? It also uses misleading terms like "external nodes" and "internal nodes" when it comes to trees. I wouldn't recommend this book. (I'm only using it because it is the university text, now I wish I had my money back)

Not so much in quality.......2002-12-18

I know this book is used as a textbook in some computer engineering courses at my school. However, I do not belong to engineering, but I am a computer science undergraduate. :-) I've tried to help my friends who were having a lot of trouble implementing a binary tree. So to follow what they learned, I've looked at the book. Hmm. I sat there, and said "I'm lucky that my profs don't teach me algorithms like this." Some implementations did not make quite intuitive sense to me. Although I understood what the book was trying to illustrate, but I didn't see why such implementation would be intuitive and useful.

I used this book at school.......2001-04-13

Hi, as an undergrad engineering student, I had this book for the coursebook in my algorithms course. Honestly speaking, it's good , very readable text. I never used any of the code examples fom the book in my assignments, yet they proved rather helpfull in understanding the material. Something, that I think is missing from this book is the answeres to the problems at the end of the chapter that are not programming projects. Ading them to the book could help students a lot ( no need to relay on TA's )

decent for soft eng, bad for data structures.......2001-03-21

As a second year student, the use of design patterns (see chapter 5) bothers me. It really detracts from what the author is trying to convey. It's extremely hard to ignore them because you have to backtrack to previous chapters frequently which creates more confusion.

This book may be useful to learn the basics of software engineering. But given complexity of the design patterns in this book, it could be glossed over in one lecture.

Book Description

This book examines the logical foundations of visual information: information presented in the form of diagrams, graphs, charts, tables, and maps. The importance of visual information is clear from its frequent presence in everyday reasoning and communication, and also in computation. Chapters of the book develop the logics of familiar systems of diagrams such as Venn diagrams and Euler circles. Other chapters develop the logic of higraphs, Peirce diagrams, and a system having both diagrams and sentences among its well-formed representations. Syntax, semantics, rules of inference, and soundness and completeness results are provided for each of the systems. In addition to developing the logic of diagrams, key questions about the status of visual information are discussed, such as the relationship between language and visually-presented information.

Logic and Discrete Mathematics: A Computer Science Perspective

Average customer rating:

University Level material
Not for first-time students..

Logic and Discrete Mathematics: A Computer Science Perspective
Winfried Karl Grassmann , and Jean-Paul Tremblay
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0135012066

Book Description

This book covers all the traditional topics of discrete mathematics—logic, sets, relations, functions, and graphs—and reflects recent trends in computer science. Shows how to use discrete mathematics and logic for specifying new computer applications, and how to reason about programs in a systematic way. Describes Prolog, a programming language based on logic, and a section on Miranda, language bad on functions. Features numerous examples which relate the mathematical concepts to problems in computer science.

Customer Reviews:

University Level material.......2003-08-27

I have used this textbook when delivering a second year University class on this topic and found that the thorough coverage of the topics was appreciated by my students. Even more important to them was the large number of examples that are presented, in detail, throughout the text.

This is a University Level textbook, not a Study Guide, and respects the reader's intellectual maturity by preparing them for subsequent classes. The perception of "density" implies that it is best taken with a liberal dose of classroom instruction - not many students seem to intuitively grasp discrete mathematics and learn the material wholly on their own. I know that I certainly did not when I was an undergrad!

For students who feel that the material is difficult, I always suggest using the library for another point of view. I also recommend the Schaum's Outline for Discrete Mathematics as a companion if the student is having significant difficulty with the concepts.

Obviously, I like the book, so why not a 5? Unfortunately, I don't know of any books that I would grant a 5 - the authors can always do something better :-)

Not for first-time students.........2001-11-13

I'm sure this book covers all the stuff that it's meant to and I'm sure that if I was a post-grad in maths this would be a good book to use. However for anyone else this book is way too heavy reading. The authors have made no attempt to keep the material easy to study and understand. The whole book is just a continuous stream of information with the density of a neutron star and where every 5th or so word is a mathematical formula. Then again maybe I'm just biased because I hate the subject matter - I think it's unnecesarily obscure and difficult for a general computer science course.
And look at the price - that's nearly $150 for us Aussies, (although our uni co-op sells it for about A$90) and that doesn't include shipping fees. Don't you hate it the way they jack up the price on these text books because they know that you have to buy it to have any chance of passing the course.

Discrete Mathematical Structures for Computer Scientists And Engineers

Average customer rating:

Discrete Mathematical Structures for Computer Scientists And Engineers
M. K. Das
Manufacturer: Alpha Science International, Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1842652982

Introduction to Information Theory and Data Compression, Second Edition (Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications)

Average customer rating:

Well balanced!
Best Book on Compression
Great Book on Compression

Introduction to Information Theory and Data Compression, Second Edition (Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications)
D.C. Hankerson , Greg A. Harris , and Jr., Peter D. Johnson
Manufacturer: Chapman & Hall/CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1584883138

Book Description

This book provides a basic introduction to both information theory and data compression. Although the two topics are related, this unique treatment allows readers to explore either topic independently of the other. The authors' presentation of information theory is pitched at an elementary level, making the book less daunting than most other texts. The second edition includes a detailed history of information theory that provides a solid background for the quantification of the topic as developed by Claude Shannon. It also covers the information rate of a code and the trade-off between error correction and rate of information transmission, probabilistic finite state source automata, and wavelet methods.

Customer Reviews:

Well balanced!.......2003-01-31

The authors of this well balanced textbook succeed admirably well in teaching the subject to the union of students in math and in cs, and to engineers. The danger with subjects that cut accross fields is that they might appeal to the intersection of audiences involved rather than to the much larger union. The authors seem to be at home with all the types of readers, they realize that the lingo and the aim is different for the different and diverse groups of students. Indeed, the tools of information theory, data compression, and arithmetic coding are widely used in science. While the mathematical parts of the subject is old[Shannon, Kolmogorov..., measurements of information, entropy, channel capacity], the applications are still going strong, with new things coming out at a fast rate right up to the present. So the emphasis in the book on data and image compression is very appropriate. There is even a JPEGtool user's guide in the appendix.

Best Book on Compression.......2001-08-29

I read a lot of books on Compression, but this is indeed the best one I ever bought. I love this book and read it frequently.

Great Book on Compression.......2001-08-29

I am a gradute student in computer science and I have read a lot of books on this subject, including 1- Digital Image Compression, by Weidong Kou, 2- The Data Compression Book, by Mark Nelson, 3- JPEG Still Image Data Compression Standard, by Pennebaker. I have also browsed few other books on this subject, but one thing I can say for sure, that this is the best book ever written on the subject of Compression. It explains the information theory and data Compression in the best possible way, with best examples. Once read, you will never forget the algorithms. I just love this book, and read it every once in a while.

Genetic Algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs

Average customer rating:

Lot of ideas for Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithm
could GA get possibly any eaiser to understand???
One of the best book on genetic algorithms
pretty bad
Awful, unreadable book.

Genetic Algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs
Zbigniew Michalewicz
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540606769

Amazon.com

Zbigniew Michalewicz's Genetic Algorithms + Data Structures = Evolution Programs has three sections. The first section is a straightforward introduction to genetic algorithms. In the second section, Michalewicz describes how to apply genetic algorithms to numerical optimization. Michalewicz, who is a pioneer in this field, discusses the rationale for using genetic algorithms for numerical optimization and describes several experiments that show how this new type of genetic algorithm performs. The author devotes the third section of the book to evolution programs.

Book Description

Genetic algorithms are founded upon the principle of evolution, i.e., survival of the fittest. Hence evolution programming techniques, based on genetic algorithms, are applicable to many hard optimization problems, such as optimization of functions with linear and nonlinear constraints, the traveling salesman problem, and problems of scheduling, partitioning, and control. The importance of these techniques is still growing, since evolution programs are parallel in nature, and parallelism is one of the most promising directions in computer science.
The book is self-contained and the only prerequisite is basic undergraduate mathematics. This third edition has been substantially revised and extended by three new chapters and by additional appendices containing working material to cover recent developments and a change in the perception of evolutionary computation.

Customer Reviews:

Lot of ideas for Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithm.......2007-01-05

This book is not written to be the primary text book for a Genetic Algotithm, Data Structure or a Neural Algorithm course. However this book gives an excellent introduction to modern approaches to Evolutionary Algorithm, and how/whether GAs and EAa can be applied successfully to problems of Optimisation, Navigation, and also other contemporary and emerging fields.

This book emphasizes on a lot of fresh ideas (which already requires background in GA, and Algorithms) and may be highly recommended for reference reading of Evolutionary Algorithms and allied Techniques.

could GA get possibly any eaiser to understand???.......2005-03-20

I saw this book once with one of my buddies,and read the first chapter,,,it was after looking up the first chapter i decided to buy it...I have read some other books on this topic,and since i was kinda in rush for a project which needed GA,i found no other book which explains the concepts and procedures, this straightforward and "right to the point".As far as writing this book goes, "Michalewicz" has done a really really great job.
Go for it guys!!!
cheers,
Amir

One of the best book on genetic algorithms.......2002-07-12

A very good vision of the evolutionary optimisation techniques not only GA. As well there is an excellent chapter on constraints handling. Maybe it is not one of the easiest book on GA but it is definitely the most useful.

pretty bad.......2001-06-13

I agree with the previous reviewer: books should be clear and get to the point. Forget about this one. Get Michalewicz and Fogel's "How to solve it" book. It is MUCH better than this one in all levels: it is better written and the content is more authorative and helpful to novices and experts.

This book is supposed to be a textbook. Maybe that's why it sells so well. I guess I am lucky I didn't have to take a class with this thing.

Awful, unreadable book........2000-11-14

This man needs to invest in a good editor. Many times I'd read through half a page or so, stop to think about it and then rephrase it into one or two sentences. Blobs of math appear to be thrown in with little justification, and the book isn't improved by them.

But this book is not only unreadable, it's also not useful. It's more an overview of the area than anything else; it doesn't give adequate information about genetic programming or neural networks. It skims many areas in a close to incomprehensible fashion without covering any in what I would consider to be good detail.

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