Data structure techniques

What Hacker News says

1. vgivanovicNov 2022
   I taught (ahem) data structures and algorithms from a book I really liked (T. Standish, Data Structure Techniques, 1980) which emphasized the mathematical aspects of the subject. (It's still available on Amazon for the bargain price of $6.40.) My students hated it. I told them that it can't be read like a novel; that every line has to be studied and understood, individually, in order. I failed as a teacher, either because they didn't follow my advice, or it was the wrong advice. My suspicion was that Standish's approach required too much effort; that the reward was not instantaneous.

   I was taught high school "new math" from an English (O-level?) text that started with sets and was not divided into algebra, trig, geometry, etc. but provided an integrated approach that covered topics as they naturally arose. My teacher (Eric Turner, now deceased, so I was unable to let him know how much he affected my life) probably had much to do with it. He also taught physics, so perhaps he really understood both the abstract and the practical.

   I have two only complaints about my mathematics education: the knowledge of how to construct and deconstruct proofs, and no statistics (too much calculus).

   My kids, 17 and 15, don't grok mathematics the way I think they should. Tis a pity since underneath it all is mathematics.

   By the way, there are some really excellent mathematics video channels on YouTube: 3 Blue 1 Brown comes to mind.

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2. rramadassNov 2021
   There are literally hundreds of threads with this topic on the Web. Most of them contain the same standard references which IMO are not always the best for people without much mathematical maturity and wishing to learn from first principles. That said, here are my recommendations for them (pdfs of almost all are available online and they can also be purchased cheaply as used books);

   * 1) Functions and Graphs and 2) The Method of Coordinates by I.M.Gelfand et. al. - These give you the basics on functions and how to visualize them which is crucial for understanding.

   * Introductory Logic and Sets for Computer Scientists by Nimal Nissanke - Nice succinct introduction to various required topics for Comp. Sci.

   * Compared To What?: Introduction to the Analysis of Algorithms by Gregory Rawlins - This is a classic book which takes you by hand and walks you through Algorithm Analysis and the reqd. mathematics. You will find this more approachable than most other text books and well worth a study.

   * How to Think about Algorithms by Jeff Edmonds - Practical techniques without too much mathematical formalism.

   * Data Structure Techniques by Thomas Standish - A Classic text; good adjunct to more modern texts.

   * Advanced Data Structures by Peter Brass - Nice succinct text but not necessarily "advanced".

   One final point; try to get a Algorithms and Data Structures book with code in the language with which you are most familiar. That way you understand the mapping from "Abstract Algorithm" to "Concrete Language Implementation" which is not always trivial.

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3. rramadassNov 2019
   Surprisingly there is no one book AFAIK but techniques are spread across many books;

   The first thing is to understand FSMs and State Transition Tables using a simple two-dimensional array. Implementing a FSM using a while/ifthenelse code vs. Transition table dispatch will really drive home the idea behind data-driven programming. There is a nice explanation in Expert C Programming: Deep C secrets.

   SICP has a detailed chapter on data-driven programming.

   An old text by Standish; Data Structure Techniques.

   Also i remember seeing a lot of neat table based data-driven code in old Data Processing books using COBOL. Unfortunately i can't remember their names now. Just browse some of the old COBOL books in the library.

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