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| courses:cs211:winter2018:journals:melkersonr:preface [2018/01/25 16:44] – [First Two Pages] melkersonr | courses:cs211:winter2018:journals:melkersonr:preface [2018/01/30 02:43] (current) – melkersonr |
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| ====== Wiki for the Preface ====== | ====== Preface ====== |
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| ===== First Two Pages ===== | ===== First Two Pages ===== |
| * **My Questions:** This section was just the preface, so it doesn't lend itself to sparking many questions. I suppose I'd ask why the authors thought it necessary to have a whole paragraph at the end of the Overview about computational intractability and NP-completeness since they also wrote the book to accommodate students who might lack some prerequisite knowledge. Computational intractability and NP-completeness are Theory of Computation topics, not intro-level (at least at W&L), and even in Theory they aren't fully explored. | * **My Questions:** This section was just the preface, so it doesn't lend itself to sparking many questions. I suppose I'd ask why the authors thought it necessary to have a whole paragraph at the end of the Overview about computational intractability and NP-completeness since they also wrote the book to accommodate students who might lack some prerequisite knowledge. Computational intractability and NP-completeness are Theory of Computation topics, not intro-level (at least at W&L), and even in Theory they aren't fully explored. |
| * **Second Time Around:** Since this section is just the preface and no information was really presented, it's hard to say that anything makes more sense after reading. | * **Second Time Around:** Since this section is just the preface and no information was really presented, it's hard to say that anything makes more sense after reading. |
| * **Note To Self:** I want to remember the line “Algorithmic problems form the heart of computer science but they rarely arrive at cleanly packaged, mathematically precise questions" (pxiii). I think it's important to remember when I'll eventually get frustrated that algorithms won't always be simple or easy to define. Furthermore, I want to remember the two elements of an algorithm: "the task of getting to the mathematically clean core of a problem, and then the task of identifying the appropriate algorithm design techniques, based on the structure of the problem" (pxiii). | * **Note to Self:** I want to remember the line “Algorithmic problems form the heart of computer science but they rarely arrive at cleanly packaged, mathematically precise questions" (pxiii). I think it's important to remember when I'll eventually get frustrated that algorithms won't always be simple or easy to define. Furthermore, I want to remember the two elements of an algorithm: "the task of getting to the mathematically clean core of a problem, and then the task of identifying the appropriate algorithm design techniques, based on the structure of the problem" (pxiii). |
| * **Readability:** I would give these pages a 10 for readability (It's the preface - it should be easy to read.), but as mentioned in the Questions section, the last paragraph seems unnecessary this early in the preface. So I give these pages a 9. | * **Readability:** I would give these pages a 10 for readability (It's the preface - it should be easy to read.), but as mentioned in the Questions section, the last paragraph seems unnecessary this early in the preface. So I give these pages a 9. |
