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Book Information

  • Title: Mastering Algorithms with Perl
  • ISBN: 1565923987
  • Author/Editor: Jon Orwant, Jarkko Hietaniemi, Joh Macdonald
  • Publisher: O'Reilly
  • Publishing date: 1999
  • Pages: 701
     Cover of the Book

Book Reviews

Review by Shlomi Fish, NA

First of all I'd like to note that I took a course about data structures and algorithms in the course of my EE studies in the Technion. Despite that fact, I found the book to be quite interesting and informative. It taught me some things which I did not learn in the course or before.

The book has its flaws though. For instance, it should cover hash-related algorithms. Also, some issues such as Counting Sort or BFS, should have received more focus in my opinion.

I think this book is especially useful for people who do not have any formal education in Algorithmics and are not familiar with algorithms in general. It can also be good for people who are, but who need a working perl code or reference to such.

I liked the fact that the book had some funny anecdotes, which made its reading even more enjoyable.

So, all in all a good book to read if one would like an introduction to algorithms or even highlights from various specialized subjects.

Review by Mikhael Goikhman, January 2003

This nice book that covers most of the main Computer Science topics is definitely a good gift for any Perl lover. The book popularly introduces a wide range of algorithms used in practice.
The authors describe different problems and suggest a number of algorithms for solving every problem. The weak and strong sides of all algorithms are examined together with their Perl implementations and benchmarks. It is an interesting mix of theory and practice, the computation theory is tested by practical benchmarks.
The book will give you many hours of interesting reading regardless of your current theoretical baggage. Those who learned Computer Science in a high school, will refresh the knowledge and review the theory again, this time from the Perl point of view. Those who are beginners to the topics will discover an interesting world of mathematical algorithms. Efficient data storage, sorting, numeric analysis, compilation theory, probability, cryptography, graphs and much more.
It is nice to confirm once again that Perl not only does not stay on the way of theory, but naturally describes it, making algorithm implementation clear and intuitive. This is especially noticeable for folks familiar with algorithm implementations in other programming languages.
The book uses a large number of convenient CPAN modules. Funny quotes make this book even more thrilling. I will definitely acquire this book for my home library on a good occasion.
Another review with some discussion can be found on Slashdot.