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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Fourteen years after it was first issued, C++ expert Jon Bentley reinvents a true classic with the second edition of his Programming Pearls. Completely revised and brought up to date with all new code examples in C and C++, this book remains an exceptional tutorial for learning to think like a programmer. The "pearls" in question center not only on choosing the right algorithms (like binary searches, sorting techniques, or sparse arrays) but also on showing how to solve problems effectively. Each chapter frames a particular programming task--such as sorting numbers, creating anagrams, or counting the words in a block of text--many drawn from Bentley's experiences in his long career as a developer. The book traces the process of arriving at a fast, efficient, and accurate solution, along with code profiling to discover what works best. After refining the correct answer, each chapter enumerates programming principles that you can use on your own. The author also challenges you to think like an engineer, and each chapter ends with about a dozen problems to get you thinking creatively about design issues. (Sidebars on such historical topics as the first computer solutions to computer chess, spell-checking, and even architectural design help create a perspective on successful problem solving and make for a truly educational and enjoyable tour of how to become a better programmer.) Bentley also asks the reader to think analytically about the world with "back of the envelope" estimation techniques drawn from engineering. Appendices list the algorithms and code rules covered in the book, plus some sample solutions. Fans of the first edition of this title will be pleased to see this favorite computer text brought up to date for today's faster hardware. Whether you want to improve your command of algorithms or test your problem-solving skills, the new version of Programming Pearl is a challenging, instructive, and thoroughly entertaining resource. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: Programming and problem-solving tutorial, sorting algorithms, merge sort, bit vectors, binary searches, program correctness and testing, improving performance, engineering and problem-solving techniques, performance estimates, designing for safety, divide-and-conquer and scanning algorithms, tuning code, tips for more efficient memory usage, insertion sort, quicksort algorithms, sparse arrays, searching algorithms, binary search trees, heaps, priority queues, searching text, and generating random text. --This text refers to the textbook binding edition of this title Book News, Inc.
Bentley (Bell Labs) offers practical programming techniques and fundamental design principles first published in his column for . The second edition features three new essays on testing, debugging and timing; set representations; and string problems. -- Copyright © 2000 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR All rights reserved --This text refers to the textbook binding edition of this title read more Book Description
The first edition of Programming Pearls was one of the most influential books I read early in my career, and many of the insights I first encountered in that book stayed with me long after I read it. Jon has done a wonderful job of updating the material. I am very impressed at how fresh the new examples seem." -Steve McConnell When programmers list their favorite books, Jon Bentley's collection of programming pearls is commonly included among the classics. Just as natural pearls grow from... read more Synopsis
The essays in this book present programs that go beyond solid engineering techniques to be creative and clever solutions to computer problems. The programs are fun and teach important programming tecniques and fundamental design principles.
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8 editorial reviews...
All Customer Reviews
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Number of Reviews: 6
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
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The Pearls Still Glitter After a Decade
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March 2, 2000
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Reviewer:
Charles Ashbacher
(see more about me)
from Hiawatha, IA (ashbacher@ashbacher.com)
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Without any doubt, my favorite article in _Communications of the ACM_ in the 1980's was the regular 'Programming Pearls' articles by Jon Bentley. When the first edition of these collected gems was published, I read it with great delight. Now, over a decade later, a second edition has been published, containing the same problems with additional modifications and notations. Given the enormous changes in programming since the mid 80's, your first reaction might be that this book is dated and therefore irrelevant. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Elegant solutions to complex programming problems are free from the rot of time. Programming is a thought process largely independent of the notation used to write it down. The solutions are sketched and explained rather than coded, and the solutions are complete. There is a certain mystique about taking a complex problem, finding an initial solution and then refining it down until it kicks some big time. There are some major lessons in program refinement explained in these solutions.
Coding a binary search is covered quite extensively, which may seem like a waste of space, as this problem was solved decades ago. However, that solution took decades to get right, and this is one of those "separates the coders from the key bangers" type of problem. Other problems examined include performance tuning, squeezing space and program correctness. While the improvement in the performance of the hardware has been astounding since these solutions were written, that does not make them obsolete. The complexity of the programs that we now build has risen even faster, so performance and space considerations are just as critical.
Some problems were here at the beginning and will still be here at the end. Even though there may be canned code to handle them, these problems are generic enough that the solutions can be applied elsewhere, so we must learn how to solve them. Understanding these problems and their solutions will give you a fundamental skill set that will serve you well for a long time.
--This text refers to the Textbook Binding edition.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
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Packed with programming wisdom
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December 18, 1999
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Reviewer:
Russell Belfer
(see more about me)
from Seattle, WA
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It's great to see they've come out with an update to this book. The essays in this book are easy to read and touch on many valuable things, such as tuning and optimization of algorithms, using mini languages to provide robust tools, doing back-of-the-envelope calculations, and much more. I have recommended this book to several beginning programmers that I know as an excellent introduction to thinking effectively about the challenges of software engineering.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
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Best book about how to "think" for software engineering
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September 21, 1999
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Reviewer:
Saar
(see more about me)
from San Jose, CA, USA
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Great book for those who are interested in the thought that goes behind the problem solving skills that are used by great programmers. Does not matter which language or progamming method you use, this book can teach you something. If all programmers read this book, we would have much better software in this world
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
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A manual with hacker spirit!
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December 21, 1998
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Reviewer:
A reader
from Albuquerque, NM USA
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This book goes into what is overlooked and should be taught in "computer science" classes. Instead of focusing on conspiracy-driven "good programming practices" with trite and bloated algorithms, this book focuses on efficient, simple, and creative solutions to problems. This emphasizes on creating solutions that work well on COMPUTERS (albeit dated computers) and not abstract turing machines with no disk or memory limitations! Programming Pearls is easy to read, with lots of little excersizes to get your brain thinking for FUN and PROFIT. This book truly has SLACK.
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