Robert Lafore (1) (1938–)

Assigned text for a course in Data Structurs and Algorithms. Reasonably good explanations of the material, but the code provided is idiosyncratic and often awkward to follow, and there are some odd lapses. As an example of an odd lapse, LaFore's discussion of red-black trees cites "four rules" which define this structure. These are: 1) Every node is either red or black 2) the root of the tree is always black. 3) no red node has a red child and 4) every path from root to an empty node must contain the same number of black nodes. These rules are meant to ensure that the tree is balanced, but there's a fifth and later a sixth which are required, and not really discussed in any systematic fashion. The student (and in my case, the teacher) must stop and reconfigure the text to make it all hold together - a good learning opportunity, but not an example of a good textbook.

The text is supplemented by applets for each major area discussed, which would be much more useful if the author didn't feel the need to occupy 8-10 pages in any given chapter explaining how to use his fairly simple explanatory devices.… (mehr)