Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
 Entertaining February 17, 2009
Yuanchyuan Sheu (USA)
We used this book for one semester when I was in the graduate school. This is one of the computer science related books that actually have enough substance to have some intellectual value.
I found this volume entertaining years after leaving graduate school and working in the industry as an engineer. The topics addressed in this book is actually quite intriguing--the best time to reduce programming complexity is before one actually programs. I believe any serious programmer should be able to estimate the complexity, both space and time, on the algorithm he is designing.
In the real world, one does not encounter nontrivial algorithms very often, and from a practical perspective, this books is not quite useful.
However, when you really get bored, this is something that could entertain your brain a little.
Computational Complexity - Christos Papadimitriou October 5, 2008
Krum Bakalsky (Sofia, Bulgaria)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
Hello Amazon guys,
I would like to thank you for the successful purchasement of this book. It was delivered to me about a month after i ordered it. The book is in very good condition. However, it has some scratches on the covers, due to, probably, transportation issues and the mechanical deformation that it has suffered being packed with many other stuff in the plane/train ?. So purchasing a book from the internet is slightly different from bying the book directly from a bookstore, but as for my first international and online order i am pretty satisfied and would rate it 5.5/6.0. Thank you once again, i will probably come back for some other order!
Krum.
 Excellent book, but you need some training November 3, 2007
W. Ghost (Brazil)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is excellent. However, you need strong training in the kind of reasoning used in math and CS theory before you can read it. The subject gets very abstract, and may be hard to follow (and that's not Papadimitriou's fault).
I would recommend it for people who have already read Sipser's book (working on the exercises), for example.
good book for beginners October 25, 2007
Yi Feng (Astoria, NY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a good introductory book of computational theory for students in computer science, good juniors, seniors and first year graduates. The book is well presented, fit for self studies, and covered most contents of computability and complexity. The book is slightly old, some of the latest result are not included, e.g., a P-algorithm of solving "prime problem" was found in 2001. This book is not good for advanced researchers in theoretical computer science, it is way to shallow. Compared with Martin Davis's book, this is easier to understand, equally well presented. Be sure not to get the $8-9 version, that is not the book, although under the same title.
I am a research in theoretical algorithms.
 The book is simply not useful February 6, 2006
V. Sankar (Los Angeles, CA USA)
4 out of 21 found this review helpful
If your purpose is to learn something. This book is really bad at teaching you.
The author assumes many things. He has no idea of building things in a gradient. He leaves out the details of how something was arrived at.
If his purpose is to show off, then he has achieved. If his purpose is to create a text that is readable and understandable. He has failed.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
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