Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing Paperback - 2014

From the rear cover

Computer science is the science of the future, and already underlies every facet of business and technology, and much of our everyday lives. In addition, it will play a crucial role in the science the 21^st century, which will be dominated by biology and biochemistry, similar to the role of mathematics in the physical sciences of the 20^th century. In this award-winning best-seller, the author and his co-author focus on the fundamentals of computer science, which revolve around the notion of the algorithm. They discuss the design of algorithms, and their efficiency and correctness, the inherent limitations of algorithms and computation, quantum algorithms, concurrency, large systems and artificial intelligence. Throughout, the authors, in their own words, stress the 'fundamental and robust nature of the science in a form that is virtually independent of the details of specific computers, languages and formalisms'.

This version of the book is published to celebrate 25 years since its first edition, and in honor of the Alan M. Turing Centennial year. Turing was a true pioneer of computer science, whose work forms the underlying basis of much of this book.

From the reviews of the first edition:

'This book is a veritable tour de force. Harel writes with uncommon verve, clarity and imagination.'

'Through the use of tantalizing questions and aptly chosen and often amusing examples, the author transmits to the reader the excitement and intellectual satisfaction of computer science research. Without the use of formal mathematics and without any sacrifice of intellectual integrity, he conveys to the general reader the profound principles on which computer science is founded and which hitherto were only accessible in abstruse and esoteric textbooks and papers.'

'This is scientific writing at its best.'

Dr Stan Scott, Queen's UniversityBelfast. The Times Higher Education Supplement