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Are you kidding me? The Vazirani/Dasgupta book is a joke compared to CLRS. I learned algorithms from CLRS (as most students have), and it is bar-none, the best

by mikevm 14y ago

Are you kidding me? The Vazirani/Dasgupta book is a joke compared to CLRS. I learned algorithms from CLRS (as most students have), and it is bar-none, the best data structures/algorithms book on the market. The explanations are clear, detailed and rigorous. The Vazirani/Dasgupta book does not go into as much detail. You don't believe me that this book is bad? Read some of the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-reviews/0073523402/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_two?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addTwoStar&showViewpoints=0 http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev...

jasim 14y ago
I don't see where we are disagreeing here - Vazirani/Dasgupta is not as detailed/rigorous as CLRS and that is precisely the point. The detail of CLRS comes at the cost of readability. I'm not denying that I enjoyed learning from CLRS - but I recollect having to take more effort to parse its detailed pseudo-code than what a higher level of abstraction would've taken. This is where a book with less detail like Vazirani can help. I would never recommend relying on a single text for studying anything - least of all Algorithms. Each of these complement the others in a nice way and being able to look at the same concept from the perspective of different authors always help. > The Vazirani/Dasgupta book does not go into as much detail. You don't believe me that this book is bad? Read some of the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev.. http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev.... You've pointed to the 3 one-star reviews instead of the 17 five-star reviews of the book. Was that a mistake? Joking aside, those reviews seem to be from people who've tried to use Vazirani as their sole Algorithms text. Having seen CLRS first, I've always approached Vazirani as a complement to CLRS and that worked.

by mikevm 14y ago

jasim 14y ago

I don't see where we are disagreeing here - Vazirani/Dasgupta is not as detailed/rigorous as CLRS and that is precisely the point. The detail of CLRS comes at the cost of readability. I'm not denying that I enjoyed learning from CLRS - but I recollect having to take more effort to parse its detailed pseudo-code than what a higher level of abstraction would've taken. This is where a book with less detail like Vazirani can help. I would never recommend relying on a single text for studying anything - least of all Algorithms. Each of these complement the others in a nice way and being able to look at the same concept from the perspective of different authors always help. > The Vazirani/Dasgupta book does not go into as much detail. You don't believe me that this book is bad? Read some of the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev.. http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev.... You've pointed to the 3 one-star reviews instead of the 17 five-star reviews of the book. Was that a mistake? Joking aside, those reviews seem to be from people who've tried to use Vazirani as their sole Algorithms text. Having seen CLRS first, I've always approached Vazirani as a complement to CLRS and that worked.