There are apparently a lot of people who don't finish reading TAOCP. One thing I've consistently noted in people's responses is being unable to handle all of the math in the series. What books or other materials do people recommend reading/understanding prior to TAOCP to make it more digestible? Assume the reader already has a good understanding of at least 1 imperative language (C, Java, etc.) and knows basic algebra.
+6
A:
'Concrete Mathematics' by Knuth and others covers all (if memory serves) the maths you'll need for TAOCP.
High Performance Mark
2009-01-19 16:21:53
I agree. It covers much of the same math over more pages. But not everything in that book is necessary to read TAOCP.
John D. Cook
2009-01-19 16:25:35
Most of 'Concrete Mathematics' is already in TAOCP Volume 1 (it's just an expanded version, with more exercises, of pretty much the same.) But of course, Concrete Mathematics is worth reading on its own; even more than TAOCP I would say.
ShreevatsaR
2009-01-19 16:41:26
A:
I personally don't think that TAOCP should be read front-to-back. At least, I wouldn't get so much out of it that way. There's simply too much in there, and when I bought it, I just skipped the topics that weren't interesting to me, because it was not worth the mental overhead.
As far as I remember, the math in there is simple enough that if the topic is actually interesting, you should be able to figure it out.
Carl Seleborg
2009-01-19 16:40:33
A:
It's a reference book, not meant to be read all the way through. But just like an encyclopedia, it's fun to page through every now and then. There's a lot of historical anecdotes in it, for example, which aren't important to any computer science problem, but interesting nonetheless.
IMO: unless you're trying to achieve a record, don't set out to read it front to back. Just leaf through occasionally, read through the parts you're interested in, do an exorcise or two, enjoy the footnotes...