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Understanding Computation: From Simple Machines to Impossible Programs 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Tom Stuart (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 62 ratings
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Finally, you can learn computation theory and programming language design in an engaging, practical way. Understanding Computation explains theoretical computer science in a context you’ll recognize, helping you appreciate why these ideas matter and how they can inform your day-to-day programming.

Rather than use mathematical notation or an unfamiliar academic programming language like Haskell or Lisp, this book uses Ruby in a reductionist manner to present formal semantics, automata theory, and functional programming with the lambda calculus. It’s ideal for programmers versed in modern languages, with little or no formal training in computer science.

  • Understand fundamental computing concepts, such as Turing completeness in languages
  • Discover how programs use dynamic semantics to communicate ideas to machines
  • Explore what a computer can do when reduced to its bare essentials
  • Learn how universal Turing machines led to today’s general-purpose computers
  • Perform complex calculations, using simple languages and cellular automata
  • Determine which programming language features are essential for computation
  • Examine how halting and self-referencing make some computing problems unsolvable
  • Analyze programs by using abstract interpretation and type systems
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    9781449330088
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1449329273
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    O'Reilly Media
  6. Publication date
    May 15, 2013
  7. Language
    English
  8. File size
    3456 KB
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom is a computer scientist and programmer, and the founder of Codon, a digital product consultancy in London. He works as a consultant, mentor and trainer, helping companies to improve the quality and clarity of their approach to creating software products, usually on the web. He has lectured on optimizing compilers at the University of Cambridge, co-organizes the Ruby Manor conference, and is a member of the London Ruby User Group.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CT3C4IM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (May 15, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 15, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3456 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 334 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 62 ratings

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
62 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

klassa
5.0 out of 5 stars loved this book!
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2021
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I loved loved loved this book! It was some of the best parts of grad school, but repackaged into a form that was accessible to someone who hasn’t seen academia in decades. I just about read it in one sitting... Couldn’t put it down.
3 people found this helpful
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C. L. Beard
5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the finer books on computer science you will find
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2017
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This is one of the finer books on computer science you will find. Especially since it was published in the last few years I find that particularly remarkable as most of the classic had been written in the 70's or 80's. Not saying this is a classic yet, but well worth the read.
2 people found this helpful
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Marcel
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Practical Introductory Book
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2013
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I've gone through the first part of the book, and it is great up until now.
There are some code examples in this book that are not explained and are hard to understand, maybe the book would be better off without examples the author does not plan to explain adequately, or code examples that do not help the reader understand the subject being treated.

Most of the code examples that are not thoroughly explained are *extra* content, but I think they degrade the quality of the book instead of improve it.
6 people found this helpful
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Emmanuel Oga
5.0 out of 5 stars From finite state machine to turing machines, in a digstible, example driven way
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2014
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Most books talking about automatons, regular expressions and related subjects are made really hard to digest by have a very formal, mathematical approach and not being straightforward to apply into programming concepts. This book does have depth but keeps it simple by showing you actual code instead of just mathematical symbols. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will probably come back to it soon.
5 people found this helpful
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Nick
3.0 out of 5 stars Not too shabby
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2013
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This book does what it promises to do - take the reader from the most basic simplifications of computers (finite automata), through more complex simplifications (Turing machines) to reasoning about 'impossible' problems (The quotation marks are added because these problems will surely be solved one day or another by some clever fellow with too much brain activity and spare time, but are impossible for now). I really enjoyed the fact that the author was able to use Ruby code to illuminate his examples, which (me being a programmer) made them much easier to understand (easer being the operative word, this s*** is still complex as balls) than the mathematical notation commonly used by textbooks.

However, I feel that Mr. Stuart (much like all other authors of complicated, technical books I've read) falls into the trap of following a very predefined path for his line of reasoning, which leaves the reader with the feeling (at least, this was the case for me) that this is 'all planned out' and that there's a lot of information he intentionally leaves out or doesn't mention (this might not even be the case, but it still FEELS like this - which is a problem). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the book, and if you still don't know what I'm talking about then feel free to shake your head condescendingly.

Now, my interest in this particular field of computer science is cursory at best, which might not make me the ideal fit for Mr. Stuart's target audience, so if you get a major hard-on when syntax trees are generated (seek help) then you might get more out of this book than me.

That being said, he managed to peak my interest in concepts I felt were mind-numbingly boring in university (such as non-deterministic and deterministic finite automata), so kudos to Mr. Stuart for that. This book is a possible gold mine for the more interested pupil, especially when considering the problem of Turing completeness (in which he completely lost me, mid-chapter I put the book down and went to the fridge and rewarded myself with a beer for my efforts), reasoning about programs and (wait for it) generation of syntax trees.

All in all a good read, if you're into this sort of thing.
12 people found this helpful
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Christian M. Stead
5.0 out of 5 stars Great introductory text on theory of computation
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2016
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This book won't give you the deep mathematical underpinnings of computation, but it provides a great starting point for understanding how computer scientists think about computation and could provide a solid auxiliary reference for CS students touching computation for the first time.
3 people found this helpful
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Raza Z Sayed
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book !
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2013
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A fantastic introduction to the theory of computation for the working programmer.Covers topics like writing a programming language,automata theory etc in a really accessible manner and uses ruby to demonstrate the principles. Must read !.
10 people found this helpful
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WD McDaniel
1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written and unneccesarily complicated
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2014
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This book was very poorly written, confusing and badly organized. Rather than presenting computation from a logical, evolutionary point of view, this book tried to be a collection of academic papers, jumping in with no rhyme or reason.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Lee T
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a fantastic book. The author manages to explain complex topics ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2017
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This is a fantastic book. The author manages to explain complex topics in such a way that is easy to understand. If you are like me, a self taught programmer wanting to learn all the big ideas in computer science then don't hesitate to buy this book! For example, if you ever struggled with the idea of non-determinism, as I did, this is explained in the chapter on finite state machines in such a way that it really just clicks straight away! So, the author really knows his stuff and is able to explain in a clear and concise way. The code is in Ruby and there is a quick primer in the first chapter with enough Ruby to get you through the book. 5 stars!
One person found this helpful
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Dobes V
4.0 out of 5 stars Builds from the ground up
Reviewed in Canada on July 4, 2013
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I have been enjoying this book. I like the way they implement everything in Ruby rather than leaving it very theoretical. I definitely would recommend this to any programmer looking to improve their computer science background a bit, especially if you're not already familiar with state machines, automatons, universal turing machines, lambda calculus, parsers, interpreters, and compilers. This books introduces those terms in a very concrete way *using code* such that you'll really know exactly what it means afterwards.
3 people found this helpful
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Christopher Kamper
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you speak Ruby or Automata
Reviewed in Germany on October 6, 2013
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I bought this book after the rave reviews it received from the Ruby Rogues Podcast (Amazon does not allow links, so you have to search for it) - and so far, I haven't been disappointed! I'm about halfway through and many of the concepts I had previously learned the mathematical way became much, much clearer still. I'm just not sure exactly if this book is really aimed at readers with "no formal background in mathematics or computer science" as the author suggests. Knowing about Turing machines, semantics, grammars and such certainly helped me through some of the denser parts.

I have to confess that my Ruby isn't all that great though and I have to read and re-read the code blocks a lot. My verdict would be that you should speak Ruby quite well _or_ have some basic understanding of computation before you pick this one up. If you lack both, this book might be a little too hard for an enjoyable read.
One person found this helpful
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Toronto Book Reader
1.0 out of 5 stars Not in the slightest bit helpful
Reviewed in Canada on September 20, 2013
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Having read the table of contents, I thought this book would explain in detail the CS ideas hear all the time, like that a certain deterministic pattern is "Turing complete". Instead of details and understanding, you get pages of dense source code and lots of white space. I've been fooled too many times by the promise of an O'Reilly book, never again.
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Henry Biney
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and precise
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2014
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The author explains a key concepts of computation in ways that I never thought possible. The exposition is clear and well presented. These are concepts I struggled with while at university... I wish this book was released while I was CS student!
3 people found this helpful
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