Reviews for Handbook of Research on Emerging Rule-Based Languages and Technologies, 2-Volume Set: Open Solutions and Approaches

The average rating for Handbook of Research on Emerging Rule-Based Languages and Technologies, 2-Volume Set: Open Solutions and Approaches based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-14 00:00:00 Laprade Sebastien I think my little artificial-life fascination is waning (it's all Maxis' SimLife program's fault I'm into this stuff), but this is a good book. It surveys 12 recent artificial life programs that are free and available for download (or at least were circa 2003 - a couple now seem to be unavailable). Especially interesting was Avida, which simulates programs within a virtual machine that compete for space and resources, and attempt to replicate and evolve. It looks like some fascinating results have come from Avida runs, but they unfortunately require you to understand the assembly-like language the program-organisms write to really appreciate. Also intriguing is Framsticks, which allows you to construct 3-d organisms that likewise interact with a virtual environment and evolve. Each article is written by a developer of the program under discussion, which allows the programs' processes to be discussed in great detail. This is great, but also means that possible flaws or limitations of each program's approach are not addressed, as they perhaps would be if reviews of the programs by people outside the development process were included. That's about the only flaw of the book (well, and that the last article, about the possible uses of artificial life in art, could've been fascinating but was short and slap-dash).

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-14 00:00:00 Chris Morris I read this on the advice of Dr. Eiselt, Dean (at that time) of the College of Computing, after asking him via email "alright, I'm taking classes and whatnot, but I want the Stygian deep; I want to go down as far as I can; I want and need to read those books which have shaped the great computer scientists before me, the real thing." Having probed the shelves of computer science and mathematics since, I remain convinced he could have given no better advice to a precocious freshman. Used for several decades at MIT, this second edition is more than thorough enough for an introduction to computer science anywhere. Taught using the Scheme system (with its close bindings to the type-free λ-calculus), this canonical work covers register machines, logic programming, nondeterministic evaluation, the relations of recursion to iteration, and a wealth of carefully-woven-in jewels from number theory and discrete mathematics. Every programmer thinking himself the real deal owes it to himself to read through this grand work, epic in scope and breathtaking in sudden illuminations.