Computer Science Distilled

Posted on Wed, 28 Feb 2018 in Reviews

Are you looking for a simple thin Computer Science book? Maybe, Computer Science Distilled is for you. Unfortunately only if you have no plans to code for living. In this case, it is a good introduction to computer science world. If you are professional developer or CS student, skip this book.

It’s a short book, written in plain, basic English. It presents ideas in their simplest form. It focuses on practical aspects of computer science that matter most: everyday things that directly impact the quality of your code.

This book consists of 8 chapters that cover every aspect of computer science. Do you think it has thousands of pages? No, it doesn't. There are only 170 pages. So how it can cover all aspects of CS? It can't. Actually, this book contains an extremely short introduction into some CS fields.

Computer Science Distilled is very similar to physics books for amateurs. In such books, there are no formulas, no math, only text explanations in plain English. The main purpose of that kind of books is to entertain readers.

I think the main problem with the book is that the author skips detailed explanation of algorithms. Sometimes he gives you a graphical explanation only.

Anyway, this book has its own audience but, I hope, not from professional developers.

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