Art of Computer Programming, The, Volumes 1-4B, Boxed Set

The set of books arrived in very good condition. The content itself is a real gem, although the collection is somewhat heavy and not very practical to carry around. The production quality is excellent: sturdy box, solid covers, and everything feels well made and durable.

good reference for programmers

Item was delivered quickly

Includes the long, long, long delayed volume 4 (both A and B) as well as updates to the first editions I bought in the 1970s after saying to the TA for my first programming course (in Fortran) that it seemed to me that there was a certain art to programming - and he pointed me at Don Knuth’s books on his bookshelf. Joke was on me! But I did get exposed to a whacky kind of misnamed science* called (Theoretical) Computer Science! I even worked for a Computer Science department at one point. Help support Prof Knuth in his (non-) retirement and learn an exciting new programming language (MIX) by buying the latest edition of his epic saga The Art of Computer Programming. (I’m hoping that Prof Knuth never actually retires - as he still owes us Volumes 5, 6, and 7!) *It is called Theoretical Computer Science but is really just an advanced area of mathematics not science. As my squash opponent once explained to me: if it is really science then it doesn’t need to have science in the name (physics or chemistry versus political science, social science, …).

Mr. Knuth, I love you!

I just received these books. They arrived in excellent condition. A couple of bumps on the holder box, but nothing to get uptight about. Amazon should have packed them better. Even though I have my Bachelors Degree is Computer Science, after scanning through these books, the real CS training begins now. These books will take a while to thoroughly study. I'm looking forward to it. Donald Knuth and his peers should be the ones people think of when they think of computers. Not Bill or Steve. Bill and Steve were just good salesmen.

Forget Bill Gates or Steve Jobs; Donald Knuth is the patron saint of computer programming. This set would be a wonderful gift for a CS graduate or a dedicated computer programmer of any age. These aren't for hobbyists or people with a passing interest in a subject, however. They are hard core, the real thing, the full monty. Archeologists will dig these up a thousand years from now and marvel at our primitive society's understanding of computer programming and algorithms.

What can I say about this set of books? It's hard to not to repeat the praise that has been said so many times before, so I won't. These are excellent books, period. What I will say is that anyone doing any sort of computer programming can benefit from the deep wisdom Knuth has captured in these volumes. While some sections may seem a bit dated, all of it is germane to creating efficient and elegant computer programs, whether you are a beginner or a seasoned pro looking to put a shine on your work.

I have always wanted to have these books, and it was only the fact that when the new box set (1-4B) was on Amazon at a *very* good price that I could justify buying it! I won't say what the price was when I pre-ordered, but it was a *lot* cheaper than the £200+ currently being charged! I was at University studying for my Computer Science Degree in the late 80s, and this was a reference book that myself and my fellow CS Undergraduates referred to very often - it was a reference book that could only be used within the library itself, it couldn't be removed! Be warned - as you can see from the images I've included, a certain level of mathematics and programming knowledge is required. I've included the complete algorithm for a Quicksort, and at the end you can see the start of the MIX program for this algorithm. MIX is Knuth's hypothetical computer, with the language used being a machine language. As noted in Vol 1, MIX is considered out of date, and a new version (MMIX, MIX 2009) has been developed, and will be used in the next edition of volumes 1-3 (Vols 4a and 4b already use MMIX). Volume 1: "Fundamental Algorithms" (originally published in 1968, updated and revised 3rd edition 1997 - Mathematical Preliminaries - MIX - Information Structures (Lists, Trees, Multilinked Structures, Dynamic Storage Allocations) Volume 2: "Seminumerical Algorithms" (originally published in 1969, updated and revised 3rd edition 1998) - Random Numbers - Arithmetic (Positional Number Systems, Floating Point Arithmetic, Multiple-Precision Arithmetic, Radix Conversion, Rational Arithmetic, Polynomial Arithmetic, Manipulation of Power Series) Volume 3: "Sorting and Searching" (originally published in 1973, updated and revised 2nd edition 1998) - Sorting (Combinatorial Properties of Permutations, Internal Sorting, Optimum Sorting, External Sorting) - Searching (Sequential Searching, Searching by Comparison of Keys, Digital Searching, Hashing, Retrieval on Secondary Keys) Volume 4a: "Combinatorial Algorithms Part 1" (originally published in 2011, first edition) - Combinatorial Serarching (Zeros and Ones, Generating All Possibilities) Volume 4b: "Combinatorial Algorithms Part 2" (new publication, first edition 2023) - Mathematical Preliminaries Redux - Combinatorial Searching (Generating All Possibilities continued - backtrack programming and satisfiability) If you are a programmer, this is the go-to work for algorithms! Forthcoming in the next few years (hopefully) are: - Volumes 4C, 4D: Combinatorial Algorithms ( Generating all possibilities (continued), Shortest paths, Graph algorithms, Graphs and optimization, Independence theory, Independence structures, Efficient matroid algorithms, Discrete dynamic programming, Branch-and-bound techniques, Herculean tasks (aka NP-hard problems), Near-optimization), Recursion [This will complete Knuth's "Core" work] The remaining Volumes are planned for, and form specialist areas, so not part of the "Core" work: - Volume 5 – Syntactic Algorithms (Lexical scanning (includes also string search and data compression), Parsing techniques) - Volume 6 – The Theory of Context-free Languages - Volume 7 – Compiler Techniques

Sem comentários, uma obra essencial para qualquer profissional e acadêmico da área. Um detalhe que vale comentar é que essa versão possui contracapa, eu particularmente não gosto muito, mas para os compradores de plantão, é um ponto a se observar.

The classic masterwork. Fortunately, Amazon had priced this very cheaply at under €50 and free delivery. An offer that I could not turn down, even though I already had the first three parts as a Low Price Edition from a visit to India.

Covers scuffed, outer case was ripped and had to be glued back together.

Da avere nella biblioteca personale da chiunque si interessi minimamente la teoria dell'informatica. Poi, se si interessa la pratica, è la lettura obbligatoria. Sinceramente, anche se uno non fosse interessato per niente dell'informatica, sono libri belli da vedere e fanno una bella figura nella biblioteca personale ;-)