Stanford GraphBase: A Platform for Combinatorial Computing, The
- By Donald E. Knuth
- Published Nov 30, 1993 by Addison-Wesley Professional.
- Copyright 1994
- Pages: 592
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-60632-9
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-60632-7
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Product Author Bios
Donald E. Knuth is known throughout the world for his pioneering work on algorithms and programming techniques, for his invention of the Tex and Metafont systems for computer typesetting, and for his prolific and influential writing. Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University, he currently devotes full time to the completion of these fascicles and the seven volumes to which they belong.
The Stanford GraphBase: A Platform for Combinatorial Computing represents the first efforts of Donald E. Knuth's preparation for Volume Four of The Art of Computer Programming. The book's first goal is to use examples to demonstrate the art of literate programming. Each example provides a programmatic essay that can be read and enjoyed as readily as it can be interpreted by machines. In these essays/programs, Knuth makes new contributions to several important algorithms and data structures, so the programs are of special interest for their content as well as for their style.
The book's second goal is to provide a useful means for comparing combinatorial algorithms and for evaluating methods of combinatorial computing. To this end, Knuth's programs offer standard, freely available sets of data - the Stanford GraphBase - that may be used as benchmarks to test competing methods. The data sets are both interesting in themselves and applicable to a wide variety of problem domains. With objective tests, Knuth hopes to bridge the gap between theoretical computer scientists and programmers who have real problems to solve.
As with all of Knuth's writings, this book is appreciated not only for the author's unmatched insight, but also for the fun and the challenge of his work. He illustrates many of the most significant and most beautiful combinatorial algorithms that are presently known and provides sample programs that can lead to hours of amusement. In showing how the Stanford GraphBase can generate an almost inexhaustible supply of challenging problems, some of which may lead to the discovery of new and improved algorithms, Knuth proposes friendly competitions. His own initial entries into such competitions are included in the book, and readers are challenged to do better.
Features
- Includes new contributions to our understanding of important algorithms and data structures
- Provides a standard tool for evaluating combinatorial algorithms
- Demonstrates a more readable, more practical style of programming
- Challenges readers to surpass his own efficient algorithms
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Part of the Computer Science canon, By
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This review is from: The Stanford GraphBase: A Platform for Combinatorial Computing (Hardcover)
This is a stellar book. It's important, clear, and fun to read. Donald Knuth at his best.
4 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Knuth's eccentricity discourages beginners, By Anthony Chua (LA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Stanford GraphBase: A Platform for Combinatorial Computing (Hardcover)
I found that Knuth's reputation for eccenctricity gets in the way of actually getting to the meat of the book. For example, getting the programs to compile under Windows was not as straightforward as it could be (although not that difficult). Much harder was to get used to the idea of using CTANGLE and CWEB in order to get Graphbase to a state where you can actually compile it.It does not help at all that Chapter 3 of the book is when how to install Graphbase is actually discussed. Just for these alone I have to give the book a 3 star rating. Perhaps I will change this once I have had the opportunity peruse the _real_ contents of the book. |
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