Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problem Solving With C++ Review

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(More customer reviews)I just finished a semester at the University of Texas at Austin in which this book was the text book for an abstract data types class. The book is a good textbook, but not a good desk reference.
The book is obviously written with students in mind, using rhetorical questions, leaving vital areas unexplained as "exercises for the reader", etc. As an introductory text, in an introductory class, the book served its purpose, though the professor was required to explain some of the details that the book lacked. The code that is included in the book is all written in pseudo-code, most of it does not compile without some tweaking, and when a student is trying to grasp a diffucult concept in graph theory, the last thing that student wants is to have to trace through the program, line-by-line, to catch some error that is irrelevant to the larger problem, such as semicolons that have been left out, unmatched parenthesis, variable names that are not allowed by most of the commercial compilers.
The book does have a good learning curve, however, and makes for good reading when first approaching a new computer science concept; however, when having to program a particularly hard section of a certain data structure, wading through pages of diatribe against older methods is not what is needed at that time.
For instance, after spending a large portion of an entire chapter on AVL trees, Weiss proceeds to give example code (that doesn't compile on Borland 5.0, Visual C++, or GNU compilers without some tweaking), but leaves out a crucial method! When first learning about AVL trees, one of the lessons that was drilled into our heads was the diffuculty of AVL deletion... yet the book summed it up in *one* sentence: "As with most data structures, deletion is the hardest task; it is left as an exercise to the reader."
Argh.

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Experienced author and teacher Mark Allen Weiss now brings his expertise to the CS2 course with Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problem Solving with C++, which introduces both data structures and algorithm design from the viewpoint of abstract thinking and problem solving. The author chooses C++ as the language of implementation, but the emphasis of the book itself remains on uniformly accepted CS2 topics such as pointers, data structures, algorithm analysis, and increasingly complex programming projects.Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problem Solving with C++ is the first CS2 textbook that clearly separates the interface and implementation of data structures. The interface and running time of data structures are presented first, and students have the opportunity to use the data structures in a host of practical examples before being introduced to the implementations. This unique approach enhances the ability of students to think abstractly.Features * Retains an emphasis on data structures and algorithm design while using C++ as the language of implementation. * Reinforces abstraction by discussing interface and implementations of data structures in different parts of the book.* Incorporates case studies such as expression evaluation, cross-reference generation, and shortest path calculations. * Provides a complete discussion of time complexity and Big-Oh notation early in the text. * Gives the instructor flexibility in choosing an appropriate balance between practice, theory, and level of C++ detail. Contains optional advanced material in Part V. * Covers classes, templates, and inheritance as fundamental concepts in sophisticated C++ programs. * Contains fully functional code that has been tested on g++2.6.2, Sun 3.0.1, and Borland 4.5 compilers. Code is integrated into the book and also available by ftp. * Includes end-of-chapter glossaries, summaries of common errors, and a variety of exercises. 0805316663B04062001

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