Hi Chas, and Brian (and all),
On Saturday 26 Mar 2011 18:05:33 Brian Fraser wrote:
> Chas++
>
> I don't get to see Algorithms in college, so I doubly appreciate
> explanations like this, in the one language I sort of grok* :) You've made
> my morning, thank you!
Well, I've only skimmed Chas' response, but it seems to be very comrpehensive,
and researched. So I agree it's well done. It's too bad you (= Brian) don't
get to see such data structures in your college, because I think they are an
essential knowledge for every half-serious software developer. To quote ESR
(inspired by Fred Brooks from "The Mythical Man-Month") from "The Cathedral
and the Bazaar" (also a must read for most enlightened programmers, IMO):
Smart data structures and dumb code works a lot better than the
other way around.
Normally, it's more important to understand data structures and to know when
to know the tradeoffs of each ones, than it is to be familiar with all the
various algorithms in the literature.
I have studied about hashes during my Electrical Engineering (more like
Computer Engineering in the United States) degree, and we were shown many
variations on the theme of hash tables and there are more explanations about
them here:
* http://blog.reverberate.org/2009/03/01/the-art-of-hashing/
* http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hackers-il/message/1831
>
> Brian.
>
> *Also the reason I'm trying to hunt down a copy of Mastering Algorithms
> with Perl.
>
Well, Mastering Algorithms with Perl does not cover hashing unfortunately, but
I remember it as an overall good book for when I read it (though far from
perfect). It's a bit showing its age, though. You may wish to consider this
book instead:
* http://www.algorist.com/
* http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena/dp/1848000693
I've read it after I knew most of the material more formally, and was still
impressed by it, and it takes a more accessible and down-to-earth approach
than CLR/CLRS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Algorithms ) to
say nothing of Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming", which appears to be
something that mere mortals cannot hope to understand. It primarily uses
examples in C, though (possibly for a very good reason), but feels much
fresher and more accurate than the "Mastering Algorithms with Perl" book.
There have been other offline and online books about data structures and
algorithms and you can find some in a web search. This seems OKish and it's
online, under Creative Commons by-sa, and also a wikibook:
* http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Data_Structures
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
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