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| Author(s) | Gersting, Judith L. |
|---|---|
| Title | Mathematical Structures for Computer Science (Third Ed.) |
| Publisher | Computer Science Press |
| Year of publication | 1993 |
| Reviewed by | ViLERII V.TROFIMOV |
Discrete mathematics encompasses a very wide range of mathematical topics such as modern algebra, mathematical logic, number theory, graph theory and so on. Propositional and predicate logics methods of proofs, sets, relations, functions, graphs, Boolean algebra, algebraic structures, finite-state and Turing machines, languages are presented in the book of Prof. J.L. Gersting in detail. The text gives a remarkable introduction to this subject.
The contents in brief of the book under review are as follows: 1. Formal Logic, 2. Proofs, Recursion, and Analysis of Algorithms, 3. Sets and Combinatorics, 4. Relations, Functions, and Matrices, 5. Graphs and Trees, 6. Graph Algorithms, 7. Boolean Algebra and Computer Logic, 8. Modeling Arithmetic, Computation, and Languages, Appendix A. Summation Notation, Appendix B. The Logarithm Function, Answers to Practice Problems, Answers to Selected Exercises, Answers to Self-Tests, Index.
This book is written very didactic. Definitions are separately extract by special color. Every section has exercises. There are the chapters' reviews and self-tests. I have the pleasure under the reading of the Gersting's manual.
It should be emphasised that this book has long been a leading textbook in its field. There are many books cover the material presented here, see, for example, D.J. Cooke, H.E. Bex, Computer Mathematics, Cambridge University Press, 1984. However, Mathematical Structures for Computer Science, has additional merits, for example, there are exercises, examples, and computer exercises.
The level of this book corresponds to the undergraduate and graduate computer science courses. Nine new topics are presented in this edition. I indicate only the predicate logic, the topological sorting, and additional graph theory algorithms.
This is an essential book for anyone who wishes to know about topics needed for computer science. Who wants know the fundamentals of the discete mathematics have to buy this brilliant book. The purchase of this book is a good investment for students, engineers and libraries alike.