Books on applied algorithms with less theory/proofs?
 

I would like to find some book resources that focus on applied
algorithms, but that focus less on theory and proofs. It would be
good if code samples were in Java. I'd also like it if exercises had
answers, and not just the answer, but the explanation of the answer.
Can anyone recommend any? I slogged through "Introduction to
Algorithms", but it fell short on some of the things I've described
here. I've noticed "Algorithms in Java" (and I saw Joseph Ottinger's
brief review), but I don't know how close it comes to what I'm looking
for.

Just to put a finer point on this, I'm not looking for a book that
talks about how to implement all the common data structure algorithms,
I'm looking for a book that talks about certain problems, and how to
approach solutions to them using common algorithms. I'm not asking
for this just so I can get better at typical weird interview questions
(although that would be a nice benefit), I'm just trying to expand my
horizons in this direction, which I believe I'm somewhat weak in.

Re: Books on applied algorithms with less theory/proofs?
 

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:04:12 -0700 (PDT), "david.karr"
<davidmichaelkarr@gmail.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted
someone who said :

>I would like to find some book resources that focus on applied
>algorithms, but that focus less on theory and proofs.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/algorithms.html
for some candidates. My budget did not allow be to buy all those
books. I have a copy of Knuth, but none of the others.
--

Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
The Java Glossary
http://mindprod.com

Re: Books on applied algorithms with less theory/proofs?
 

On Jun 26, 1:04*pm, "david.karr" <davidmichaelk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to find some book resources that focus on applied
> algorithms, but that focus less on theory and proofs. *It would be
> good if code samples were in Java. *I'd also like it if exercises had
> answers, and not just the answer, but the explanation of the answer.
> Can anyone recommend any? *I slogged through "Introduction to
> Algorithms", but it fell short on some of the things I've described
> here. I've noticed "Algorithms in Java" (and I saw Joseph Ottinger's
> brief review), but I don't know how close it comes to what I'm looking
> for.
>
> Just to put a finer point on this, I'm not looking for a book that
> talks about how to implement all the common data structure algorithms,
> I'm looking for a book that talks about certain problems, and how to
> approach solutions to them using common algorithms. *I'm not asking
> for this just so I can get better at typical weird interview questions
> (although that would be a nice benefit), I'm just trying to expand my
> horizons in this direction, which I believe I'm somewhat weak in.

I found quite a few books, many of them highly recommended in the
industry and most with sample chapters or passages available on line,
via
<http://www.google.com/search?q=Java+algorithms+book>

GIYF.

--
Lew

Re: Books on applied algorithms with less theory/proofs?
 

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:04:12 -0700, david.karr wrote:

> I would like to find some book resources that focus on applied
> algorithms, but that focus less on theory and proofs. It would be
> good if code samples were in Java.
>
I have two fairly old favourites:

Sedgewick: Algorithms (pub Addison-Wesley)
Nicolas Wirth: Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs

Both present a good range of algorithms using Pascal to present the code.
There's a bit of overlap, but not too much. That said, if I had just one
of them it would be Sedgewick. His code is clear and readily translated.

I once transcribed his red-black balanced tree code into C directly from
the book and it worked pretty much straight off and was very much faster
than that in the standard C library, which was the reason for using it: by
the time I'd finished optimising memory management I could grow a large
tree (500,000 nodes) some 30 times faster than library code could do it.
The difference was due to the speed of the Mach kernel's memory allocation
routines and the vast number of tiny bits the library code insisted on
requesting.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. |
org | Zappa fan & glider pilot