Modula-3

Rating:
Summary: A decent book but some of the examples are buggy!
Review: Displaying the power and clarity of this fairly young but robust, reliable, efficient, platform-independent programming language, the author covers all its features with formal definitions, examples, and side comments that relate Modula-3 concepts to C++, Pascal and other languages. Great for self-study, useable as a text. Has exercizes at the ends of each chapter. Once used that way, Harbison's book makes a fine reference on the langauge, but some topics are covered more than once, at different levels of detail, which can be frustrating. Assumes the reader already knows something about computer programming. For a from-scratch beginners book, try Boeszoermenyi's book. (Learn Modula-3 and put Java and C++ out of business!)

Rating:
Summary: A clear text and reference, but slightly disorganized.
Review: Displaying the power and clarity of this fairly young but robust, reliable, efficient, platform-independent programming language, the author covers all its features with formal definitions, examples, and side comments that relate Modula-3 concepts to C++, Pascal and other languages. Great for self-study, useable as a text. Has exercizes at the ends of each chapter. Once used that way, Harbison's book makes a fine reference on the langauge, but some topics are covered more than once, at different levels of detail, which can be frustrating. Assumes the reader already knows something about computer programming. For a from-scratch beginners book, try Boeszoermenyi's book. (Learn Modula-3 and put Java and C++ out of business!)

Rating:
Summary: A well written manual with little practical interest today
Review: Modula-3 is a language in the Wirth family of languages, but this time, the result has been an actually useful language (perhaps because Wirth was not involved in the process). I am unsure as to why the language never catched on, as it is as readable as Pascal, as expressive as C++ or Ada, as safe as Java, and with a reasonable module system. It would be the ideal teaching language, and the ideal language for software engineering. I guess DEC never had a marketing engine comparable to Sun.

The book is clearly aimed at someone already having taken a basic programming course, but requires little knowledge beyond that. Harbison describes every major feature in just about the right amount of detail, and emphasizes how Modula-3s features help you write reliable and maintainable software (they really do).

Unfortunately Modula-3 is now dead. It's real-world use is close to non-existent, and anyone looking for a sane language for real-world use are going to Java. The book is excellent, but the value is limited because you will probably never find a good reason to write a Modula-3 program instead of using a more mainstream language.

Rating:
Summary: A decent book but some of the examples are buggy!
Review: This book was hard to understand but it was very informative on data structures and algorithms. My only complaint about this book is that the examples are buggy. While taking Computer Science at Stony Brook, all of the students could not run certain program examples (the ones from the chapter pertaining to "External Searching Algorithms" for example) because they were buggy. Also encountered buggy diagram explanations of AVL trees. In general, the book was readable and understandable (if read VERY carefully) but was frustrating at times because of buggy explanations and examples and was a little un-organized.

If possible, try to avoid the Modula III language all together. Although it encompasses mostly all of the concepts that C++ has, C++ is an outgrowth from the mistakes of Modula III.

Please note that I do NOT recommend using this book in conjunction with Boeszoermenyi's book "Programming in Modula 3: An Introduction to Programming with Style." It is grossly unorganized and their explanations are convoluted, not detailed, assumes that the user is using SRC Modula III and that the reader has a programming background (although they claim otherwise).

If you are interested in algorithms try "The Algorithm Design Manual" by Steven S. Skiena. This book encompasses great information from a professor with years of teaching experience in the Computer Science field.