Algorithm Design with Haskell

Description

This book is devoted to five main principles of algorithm design: divide and conquer, greedy algorithms, thinning, dynamic programming, and exhaustive search. These principles are presented using Haskell, a purely functional language, leading to simpler explanations and shorter programs than would be obtained with imperative languages. Carefully selected examples, both new and standard, reveal the commonalities and highlight the differences between algorithms. The algorithm developments use equational reasoning where applicable, clarifying the applicability conditions and correctness arguments. Every chapter concludes with exercises (nearly 300 in total), each with complete answers, allowing the reader to consolidate their understanding and apply the techniques to a range of problems. The book serves students (both undergraduate and postgraduate), researchers, teachers, and professionals who want to know more about what goes into a good algorithm and how such algorithms can be expressed in purely functional terms.

Richard Bird is the author of a number of well-received books on Haskell, including Thinking Functionally with Haskell (Cambridge, 2015) and Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design (Cambridge, 2010). He retired in 2008 and is now an Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford. Jeremy Gibbons is Professor of Computing at the University of Oxford, where he teaches on the part-time professional Master's programme in software engineering. He is joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Functional Programming, past Chair of IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, and past Vice-Chair of ACM SIGPLAN.

'I strongly suspect that Richard Bird hides a magically productive book writing apparatus in his office. This time around, Bird pulled the machine's levers together with Jeremy Gibbons and out came Algorithm Design with Haskell, a book that is remarkable in many ways ... the authors recast a number of classical problems in terms of thinning, including ones like knapsack which otherwise have been tackled via dynamic programming for ages. These fresh - very confidently and competently presented- takes on established material are true highlights of the text.' Torsten Grust, Journal of Functional Programming