Programming Pearls
by Jon Bentley
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When programmers list their favourite books, Jon Bentley's collection of programming pearls is commonly included among the classics. Just as natural pearls grow from grains of sand that irritate oysters, programming pearls have grown from real problems that have irritated real programmers. With origins beyond solid engineering, in the realm of insight and creativity, Bentley's pearls offer unique and clever solutions to those nagging problems. Illustrated by programs designed as much for fun show more as for instruction, the book is filled with lucid and witty descriptions of practical programming techniques and fundamental design principles. It is not at all surprising that Programming Pearls has been so highly valued by programmers at every level of experience. What remains the same in this edition is Bentley's focus on the hard core of programming problems and his delivery of workable solutions to those problems. Whether you are new to Bentley's classic or are revisiting his work for some fresh insight, the book is sure to make your own list of favourites. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
If you want to learn about the latest web programming frameworks, design patterns, J2EE, .NET, CSS, RoR, etc. then please stay away from this book. Once you think you mastered it all, became a professional programmer with also a nice CS degree under your belt come back and start to read this book for pure pleasure and wisdom. It is with high probability that you'll have both and more than you could have imagined.
Bentley's classic work is still relevant but not in ways most programmers will imagine at the beginning. You'll probably never go and write your own search routines and re-implement classical data structures (you'll use the one that comes with the standard libraries of your language of choice) but you'll always meet some show more problems which will puzzle you with interesting constraints. This is what Programming Pearls is all about. Study the examples for fun and maybe laugh at them for their simplicity but then remember to applied the strong principles in that book to your daily technical problems (programming related or not). show less
Bentley's classic work is still relevant but not in ways most programmers will imagine at the beginning. You'll probably never go and write your own search routines and re-implement classical data structures (you'll use the one that comes with the standard libraries of your language of choice) but you'll always meet some show more problems which will puzzle you with interesting constraints. This is what Programming Pearls is all about. Study the examples for fun and maybe laugh at them for their simplicity but then remember to applied the strong principles in that book to your daily technical problems (programming related or not). show less
Bentley tells stories of algorithm creation and other computer problem solving in the days of magnetic tape drives and mainframes.
A lot of good articles on the intricacies of computer programming. A bit outdated, but then again, what isn't?
Lively but dated intro to data structures.
Indeholder "Part I: Preliminaries", "Part II: Performance", "Part III: The Product". "Epilog", "Appendix: Catalog of Algorithms", "Hints for Selected Problems", "Solutions to Selected Problems", "Index".
"Part I: Preliminaries" indeholder "Column 1: Cracking the Oyster", "Column 2: Aha! Algorithms", "Column 3: Data Structures Programs", "Column 4: Writing Correct Programs"
"Part II: Performance" indeholder "Column 5: Perspective on Performance", "Column 6: The Back of the Envelope", "Column 7: Algorithm Design Techniques", "Column 8: Code Tuning", "Column 9: Squeezing Space"
"Part III: The Product" indeholder "Column 10: Sorting", "Column 11: Searching", "Column 12: Heaps", "Column 13: A Spelling Checker".
Stadig ganske aktuel selv om nogle show more af eksemplerne er overhalede af hardwaren, dvs man skal bare gange problemstørrelsen med fx 100 og så er de stadig aktuelle.
Jons bøger bør genlæses mindst hvert andet år, hvis man skriver programmer til daglig show less
"Part I: Preliminaries" indeholder "Column 1: Cracking the Oyster", "Column 2: Aha! Algorithms", "Column 3: Data Structures Programs", "Column 4: Writing Correct Programs"
"Part II: Performance" indeholder "Column 5: Perspective on Performance", "Column 6: The Back of the Envelope", "Column 7: Algorithm Design Techniques", "Column 8: Code Tuning", "Column 9: Squeezing Space"
"Part III: The Product" indeholder "Column 10: Sorting", "Column 11: Searching", "Column 12: Heaps", "Column 13: A Spelling Checker".
Stadig ganske aktuel selv om nogle show more af eksemplerne er overhalede af hardwaren, dvs man skal bare gange problemstørrelsen med fx 100 og så er de stadig aktuelle.
Jons bøger bør genlæses mindst hvert andet år, hvis man skriver programmer til daglig show less
Oct 6, 2010 (Edited)Danish
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Author Information
6 Works 1,541 Members
Jon Bentley is a Member of Technical Staff in the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Jon has been a Contributing Editor of Dr. Dobb's Journal since 1998. His "Programming Pearls" column in the Communications of the ACM, on which this book is based, was for many years one of the most show more popular features of that periodical. show less
Work Relationships
Has the (non-series) sequel
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Programming Pearls
- Original publication date
- 1986
Classifications
- Genres
- Technology, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 005.1 — Computer science, information & general works Computer science, knowledge & systems Software development, software, data, security Software development
- LCC
- QA76.6 .B454 — Science Mathematics Mathematics Instruments and machines Calculating machines Electronic computers. Computer science
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 1,243
- Popularity
- 19,678
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (4.22)
- Languages
- 6 — English, German, Hungarian, Korean, Polish, Russian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
