Algorithmic thinking, who is it for?

[Nestor Mata]

Greetings to Daniel Zingaro.

I find my self right now reading a series of books about algorithms to refresh and improve.
And I gotta say this book does seem interesting.

From what I get from the book information, this is not a "basic" book to learn algorithms, but instead, a book for improving your analysis and view of algorithms, is this correct?

Who would you say are the main objectives of the book?

Thanks

[Daniel Zingaro]

Hi Nestor,

The reader I had in mind is someone who knows a programming language but who doesn't know about data structures and algorithms yet. Or maybe they know about sorting and searching already but want to learn more about how to make their code efficient.

Ahh and yes, you're right: my goal is to help people think about how to develop/design algorithms. I spend a lot of time talking about why algorithms work (why they are correct), why a given algorithm is useful for the current problem, why other techniques are not appropriate... I do want to teach specifics of hash tables and dynamic programming and graphs etc., but more than that, I want people to feel empowered to design their own and not to be intimidated by the subject.

One interesting challenge for me here was to try to do this without math or proofs. I just think readers deserve to know why things work, not just how, and that we can do this in an accessible way. I don't know how much I've managed it with this book, of course -- that's up to the readers to say. But I'll certainly keep trying.

Thank you,
Dan

[Nestor Mata]

Hi Daniel,

I totally agree, understanding how things work is essential.
I'm always looking for books that challenge me.
Looking forward to reading it.

Thanks a lot.