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Title: Mastering Algorithms with Perl by John Macdonald, Jon Orwant, Jarkko Hietaniemi ISBN: 1-56592-398-7 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent ! A "cookbook"...but for algorithms in Perl
Comment: This book is certainly not meant for learning Perl nor being read from the first page to the last...it's a compilation of some of the advanced features of Perl aimed at resolving very specific algorithmic problems.
Two examples :
1) i had an efficiency problem with my code that required boosting some subroutines that were heavily used but could not be easily implemented with a data structure...so i discovered the "Memoize" module that performs caching on subroutines, allowing me to speed up my code by a factor of 10 !
2) i had to find the maximum likelihood estimation of several probability distributions on some important amount of data, and for multi-parameter distributions. I just used the complex module and LU decomposition to find the roots of my non-linear systems, which can be "easily" done by specifying the equations to be resolved (expressed as subroutines which values are instanciated by the resolver) and applying a heuristic root finding algorithm based on Newton's method combined with LU decomposition. It would have taken several days or even weeks to write it from scratch in C or C++, but most of the code already existed so it was written within one day !
Of course, it's not a general-purpose book on Perl programming but rather a cookbook for some very specific utilization of Perl like "non-linear equations systems root finding" or graphs theory problems...so don't expect this to be a well-organized book since it's not intended to be that way !
Rating: 2
Summary: OK book. Bad subject matter.
Comment: Using perl to implement data structures and algorithms is kind of a laughable concept. Perl was designed specifically so that users wouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing. Algorithms written in perl are much less portable than algorthms written in a more low level language, and perl's built in data types are so powerful that they make the construction of user defined types unnecessary. Not to mention the fact that perl does so much behind your back that unless you go rooting through source code it is impossible to get truly accurate time complexity analysis of algorithms implemented in perl. If you are looking for a good algorithm book, check out Corman's Introduction to Algorithms. If you are looking for a good perl book, check out Programming Perl. If you are looking for a book that will tell you how to do a bunch of weird stuff with perl, check out Conway's Object Oriented Perl. But perl and hardcore algorithm study have never mixed, and god knows they shouldn't.
Rating: 2
Summary: MAP makes many promises, but fails to deliver.
Comment: As a guy ( engineer not computer expert ) who uses computers everyday to help his research, I would steer you away from using Perl for any task involving mathematical concepts more complicated than addition/subtraction/multiplication and addition.
I heard this same advice before buying this book and ignored it, I really wish I had listened back then.
While MAP has some nice pictures which broadly describe the essential concepts, it will give you no idea as to how to actually implement those ideas. Further, all the code is available in CPAN ( If you don't know CPAN, check it out before going any further - at the very least install a module ) and much ( at least what I attempted to use ) appeared to be broken.
Authors of computer books are usually good about answering e-mail but these authors did not deign to respond to mine.
If you are out there, struggling to learn algorithms, I would suggest taking a good computer course on the subject. I'm 99% certain the course will be taught in C/C++ or similar language -these languages have tremendous advantages over Perl when it comes to data structures and, believe me, even as a novice I've come to appreciate them...
If you really know algorithms and wish to write a few in Perl, you can do without this book. Pick up Deitel & Deitel's 'Perl: How to Program' instead or O'Reilly's basic book ( which is good, but I prefer Deitel and Deitel ) ....besides D&D answer their e-mail.
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Title: Advanced Perl Programming by Sriram Srinivasan ISBN: 1565922204 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Mastering Regular Expressions, Second Edition by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl ISBN: 0596002890 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 15 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Perl Cookbook, Second Edition by Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington ISBN: 0596003137 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 21 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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Title: Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix ISBN: 0596004788 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 06 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Programming Perl (3rd Edition) by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, Jon Orwant ISBN: 0596000278 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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