[ABE.pm] Concrete Mathematics (a.k.a. Yo, Walt!)

[Faber J. Fedor]

On 05/09/07 23:28 -0400, Walt Mankowski wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 10:49:58PM -0400, Faber J. Fedor wrote:
> Sorry, I've never read Concrete Mathematics.  About all I know about
> it is that it's printed in an odd boxy font that Knuth created just
> for that book.  I skimmed through it in Drexel's library just to look
> at it.  I think it's ugly. :)

That explains the look!  I've got a copy from a Japanese publisher and
thought it looked... dated.


> Offhand I'd think that if you could handle the math you see getting a
> BS/MS in EE, you could handle anything Knuth would throw at you.  But
> maybe not.  Comp Sci math tends to focus on different things than what
> real engineers do.  Stuff like Jacobians, gradiants, and other
> calculus things show up in subfields like computer vision, but not so
> much in analyzing algorithms.

I think that's my problem.  As an example, in CM, they're analyzing "the
Jospehus prolem" which is analyzing an algorithm and it all seems murky
to me. They make a couple of leaps that I can't work through. It's
almost as if I'm missing something basic.

> I suppose it's also possible that your math's gotten a little rusty.
> I know mine was when I started back at Drexel.  I still feel behind
> some of the recent grads.

That's one of the reasons I'm going back and revisiting some of my
maths.  I worked through a complex analysis book this pass summer and
the book I'm reading has me all hopped up to learn modern (abstract)
algebra. But none of that has to do with analyzing algorithms!


-- 
 
Regards,
 
Faber Fedor
President
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