status 20120316

Second Browse read Section 6.1.  I plan to do the exercise 6.1. Update pointers.

Browse reading: (2nd time) 153/1144

Exercises up to 6-1.1. (Skipped Chapter 4 and 5)

Revisit : 4.2-{3-5}, 4-4.3 after section 4.5, revisit Chapter 4 and 5 when time allowed. 

Checking : up to P2.1

Needs write up: 2-3.7 (nice solution using merging), P2.1c, 3-2.4, 3-2.8, P3.1

Exercises checked: 2.1-2, 2.1-3, 2.2-{1,4}, 2.3-{3,7}

Exercises which are finished but not on paper: 1.1-2, 1.2-2, 1.2-3, P1-1, The whole Section 4.4 except 4.4-3, 4.5-{1,3}, P4.4(a-c), P4.6b, 5.1-{1,2}, whole Section 6.1, 6.2-{1,2,4,5,6}, 6.3-1, whole Section 7.1, 7.2-{1-5}, whole Section 7.3 and 7.4.{2,3}, 8.2-1, 8.3-1, 8.3-4, , 10.1-{1-4,6,7}, 10.2-{1,2,6,7}, 12.1-{1,2,3,4} 12.2-{1,2,3,5,6},12.3-{2-4} 12.4-4, P12-1a, P12.4(a),13.2-2, 15-1.1, 15.1-3, 15.3-3, 15.5, 17-1.1, 18.1-1, 18.1-2, 18.2-1, 21-1.1, 21-1.2, 22-1.{1-3,6,7}, 23.1-1 and 23.1-3, P30-1{a,b}, P30-2b, 30-1.1, 31-1.{1-7}, 32.1-{1,2}, A.1-{1,2,3,4,5,7}, C.1-{2,4,5,7,8,9,14}, C.2-{1,2,4,5}, C.3-{1,2,10}, all in D.1. and D.2-2. 

Back to Self Study

There has been a while I haven't updated this blog.  I was mostly busy in my new job and don't have time to read up data structure and algorithms.

When I think back, the experience with the first 4 chapter of CLRS is great.  If you followed previous messages, you might notice that I couldn't finish Chapter 4.   It wasn't such a bad thing, as you can always come back an learn again.

Iterative reading is the key to learn and read a deep subject such as data structure.  I decided to put certain amount of time every day to work on them again.

To this day, I am still thinking about whether there are actual benefits of learning and studying deep on algorithms.   My answer is positive.   When I observed myself, there are couple of things I have changed,

1. Deep thinking before doing any programming task. 
2. Careful planning : this tends to root out mistakes before run time. 
3. The one-shot completion rate is getting higher.  

The 3rd point is worthwhile for some explanation.   You see when you program, sometimes you need to modify the code several times to get it right.   In these days though, I start to find more cases where I can just code up something and it just works.  This is always an amazing experience. 

In any case, I will move on.  This time I will work on Chapter 6.   This will skip Chapter 4 and 5 to avoid very difficult mathematical problems. 

33_P