Rating: 
Summary: Algorithms + Perl = Gold
Review: "Mastering Algorithms with Perl" is one of the most apt-named books that I have ever read, beaming the entire spectrum of algorithms through the prism of Perl to yield insightful, useful, and atypically functional examples. Jon, Jarkko, and John have done for algorithms what Jeffrey Friedl did for regular expressions and Hal Stern did for NFS and NIS, give the reader a solid reference into the inner workings of often-used but rarely mastered concepts. The chapter on cryptography sticks in my mind, with a footnote referencing Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and a warning to those checking for bad passwords. I recommend that this book should be on the shelf (if not the desk) of anyone whose field of work intersects Perl and moderate-to-high level mathematics.
Rating:
Summary: Execellent Book
Review: When I heard that O'Reilly was publishing a book on Algorithms in Perl I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Well last month I did and it was great! The clearly written text contains the usual light, easy-reading tone and occasional humorous elements found in most O'Reilly books. The authors include plenty of pictures and diagrams for those who learn visually (rather then by reciting words out loud). The Perl code within is concise, with comments when necessary, and makes use of the objects when possible. If you plan to read this book you should know Perl because the more advanced level of the code could cause problems for the non-Perl or beginning Perl Programmer. However, to a Perl programmer who is comfortable with the language the code reads clean and understandably - sometimes it's even more clear then pseudocode. The text covers a broad range of topics (with varying levels of complexity). When I was reading I recalled things I learned in college classes such as: Data Structures, Algorithm Analysis, Discrete Math, Calculous, Linear Algebra, Statistics, Compiler Design, Signal Processing, and even some good old fashion high school geometry. I found this extremely helpful because the broad nature of the book doesn't allow the authors to cover a topic in great detail. They do review each topic area giving the proper terminology used along with background of how the field developed. Within the different chapters the authors present various code segments. For some segments the authors have written there own code to implement the algorithms. In other cases, as is Perl custom, the authors have searched CPAN for the modules that implement the algorithm. Then the example code demonstrates the proper use of that module. One of the features I really enjoyed is that each chapter can stand on its own as a nice review of the algorithms in that section. (In cases where they build on other sections you are reminded where to go and read.) Another great feature the authors include is the references - all the web sites and books you'll need are listed in Appendix A, by topic area. The only thing I really felt was missing was a discussion on some AI topics such as Neural Networks and Genetic Programming. (If you're interesting Neural Networks in general check out The Linux Journal July 1999 p 44. For Genetic Programming in Perl check out The Perl Journal Fall 1999 p 34) Overall, this book explains methods of implementing Algorithms with Perl blending custom techniques with resources available (CPAN) in a "learn by example" approach. It contains 16 great chapters of background, theory, sample code, diagrams, and discussion. It has a good Appendix A (for additional info on algorithms) and a useful ASCII table in Appendix B. If you want to learn good ways to implement specific Algorithms with Perl - Read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: more perl than algorithms ...
Review: After reading rave reviews about this book all over the net, I decided to check it out. I found it a bit disappointing for several reasons. First, there appear to be type setting errors that are distracting. For example, there are sections with example code with text that follows, only the text that follows appears to be introducing the next code snippet, but is actually describing the snippet above (off by 1 error?) Indeed the final code snippet in a section has no following explanatory text. This is only a problem early on though because as the book progresses, the authors stop describing the code examples! In fact, I found myself trying to figure out what the text was doing in the chapters since all of the concepts were explained in code (without full explanations in the text). <this is a minor exaggeration> In addition, I found the unrelated annecdotes and allusions and obscure literary quotes a further distraction. I'm sure there is a certain academic audience that would appreciate this, but I hate having to look up words only to find out I didn't really need to look them up ;-). Some other things I disliked were the absence of hashes in the data structures section (perl has built in hashes, so you'd think a discussion on what a hash is, and hashing algorithms would be included in a perl algorithms book), and the description of algorithm analysis was too short. On the up side, the sorting and searching sections are very thorough (the perl code implementing them, not the text explaining the code), as are the other sections. If its perl your after, this book has some of the best perl code in print (save for Joseph Hall's "Effective Perl"). In summary, if you already understand these topics, then this book will show you some excellent perl code to implement them. If you do not understand the data structures and algorithms already, I don't think this book is going to make them crystal clear (though the authors are good about referring the reader to other sources). 4 camels for the high quality perl code and thoroughness, but it could have been 5 if the authors followed through with the type of supporting text that Hall did in EP.
Rating: 
Summary: MAP makes many promises, but fails to deliver.
Review: As a guy ( engineer not computer expert ) who uses computers everyday to help his research, I would steer you away from using Perl for any task involving mathematical concepts more complicated than addition/subtraction/multiplication and addition. I heard this same advice before buying this book and ignored it, I really wish I had listened back then. While MAP has some nice pictures which broadly describe the essential concepts, it will give you no idea as to how to actually implement those ideas. Further, all the code is available in CPAN ( If you don't know CPAN, check it out before going any further - at the very least install a module ) and much ( at least what I attempted to use ) appeared to be broken. Authors of computer books are usually good about answering e-mail but these authors did not deign to respond to mine. If you are out there, struggling to learn algorithms, I would suggest taking a good computer course on the subject. I'm 99% certain the course will be taught in C/C++ or similar language -these languages have tremendous advantages over Perl when it comes to data structures and, believe me, even as a novice I've come to appreciate them... If you really know algorithms and wish to write a few in Perl, you can do without this book. Pick up Deitel & Deitel's 'Perl: How to Program' instead or O'Reilly's basic book ( which is good, but I prefer Deitel and Deitel ) ....besides D&D answer their e-mail.
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Summary: Even if you just use the algorithms....
Review: I found the code for the graphs great when writing a code generation tool for implementing database loads where data in one table was dependent on data in another table...the code could detect the dependencies then order the tables in the correct order for loading data.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for Engineers/Scientists
Review: I picked up this book recently, and have not yet finished it, but from what I have read and glanced through, I can already tell this is an excellent book. This book is NOT for everyone. There are plenty of programmers who can get by without knowing a single thing from this book-- even Perl programmers. However, as an aeronautical engineering student with a background in mathematics and numerical applications, this book is invaluable to me. I never thought of Perl as a language that's good for NumComp applications, but this book proves it is another weapon in the typical arsenal of Matlab/Simulink/FORTRAN/C. For anyone who is studying, or currently in a field that applies numerical analysis, this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent perl book
Review: If you are a good perl programmer, but you are not familiar with algorithms: This book os for you. If you want to see excellent usage of advanced and efficient futures of perl: This book is for you. You have to be quite familiar with perl before reading this book. The best thing about the book is, the chapters are independent from each other. The only flaw in this book is; even though the book is quite thick it is not possible to cover all the topics in the book. It should have been written as two volumes. I really enjoyed reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: The second Perl book you should read!
Review: If you are relatively new to Perl programming, then you have probably already read "Learning Perl". Other reviewers may disagree with me, but "Mastering Algorithms with Perl" is the very next book you should read. This book takes the scattered pieces of the grammar of Perl and starts you on the path of understanding the prose of Perl. You learn why references are so important. You absorb the idioms of Perl programming in a manner that makes them second nature. Also, you have a ready reference for many other tasks you may find yourself working with. Buy this book. Then, you can move on to other O'Reilly Perl books with confidence.
Rating:
Summary: The second Perl book you should read!
Review: If you are relatively new to Perl programming, then you have probably already read "Learning Perl". Other reviewers may disagree with me, but "Mastering Algorithms with Perl" is the very next book you should read. This book takes the scattered pieces of the grammar of Perl and starts you on the path of understanding the prose of Perl. You learn why references are so important. You absorb the idioms of Perl programming in a manner that makes them second nature. Also, you have a ready reference for many other tasks you may find yourself working with. Buy this book. Then, you can move on to other O'Reilly Perl books with confidence.
Rating:
Summary: An Excelent Book , a must have for serious Perl developer
Review: Mastering Algorithms with Perl is a excelent book to learn ( or remember ) a lot of usefull techniques to develop with perl, you will learn from Efficiency to Interpolation, Extrapolation and Curve Fitting, just take my advice, if you are new to perl this book isn't for you ( yet ). This is for people who already have perl experience and want to learn some good techniques.
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