[Edu-sig] Independent study topic?

[Dennis E. Hamilton]

If you are leaning toward Concrete Mathematics, I would recommend that you
begin with Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming," vol.1 - Fundamental
Algorithms.  It is not so purely mathematical and applies the mathematics.
I also recommend it for the numerous worked exercises of rated difficulty.
This will provide many more opportunities for structuring and managing your
self-study, and also telling how well you are doing.

The application to the analysis of algorithms is the next great part.

If you don't like the idea of learning the MIX machine (which you don't
*have* to learn to get value from the books), you might get on Knuth's Web
sites and take a look at the modern machine MMIX,

	http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/mmix.html

Also, you might find an opportunity to be one of the people that reviews and
converts exercises for this new machine.

Finally, if you want more mathematically-oriented algorithms, you can take a
look at the work being done on Volume 4,

	http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html#vol4

which includes many modern areas of computational and algorithmic
development.

-- orcmid

------------------
Dennis E. Hamilton
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-----Original Message-----
From: edu-sig-admin@python.org [mailto:edu-sig-admin@python.org]On
Behalf Of Jacob Lee
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 19:18
To: edu-sig@python.org
Subject: [Edu-sig] Independent study topic?


[ ... ]

Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science
Applied Cryptography
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (the LISP book)

I'm leaning towards Concrete Math, but I'm concerned that it might be
too hard (I'm currently in Calculus BC, which means I'll essentially be
taking Calc II concurrently with the independent study). Does anyone
have experience with this textbook?

Also, if anyone has any other suggestions that aren't on this list or
opinions on these textbooks, that would be wonderful.

Thanks in advance.

--
Jacob Lee (ArthurDenture) <alphac@flashmail.com>
Digital signature attached. If it's not signed, it didn't come from me.
Would you send all your mail on postcards? Un-encrypted e-mail is just that.