Extension Books

I found this book quite useful to get me started on writing Gnu emacs Lisp. It is clear and fairly well organized, and far easier to deal with than the standard documentation, which I find lacks the level of organization needed for so large a language.

By "large" I mean mainly the number of functions available. Lisp as a language is not really hard to learn; it is just so different from many programming languages that it requires a few days of effort to get to "aha!". After that it becomes easy.

The drawback to this book is that it doesn't take you far enough. It is an excellent start, and having worked through it you should be able to find your way around in the online or other emacs Lisp documentation. However, it lacks an index of emacs Lisp functions, or other similar reference material. I find this unfortunate, but it's not a show-stopper because once you get through this book you will know enough to use other reference material.

If the description "tutorial" means presentation of fragments of Lisp code interspersed with commentary, then this book is indeed tutorial. This book would have been much more valuable if the author had presented complete listings of his .emacs files. There are two problems with fragments. First, they are not as interesting as complete listings. Second, when you put them together and they don't work, you get to wonder whether they were complete to begin with. It is no doubt a grand book "if you know what you are doing." But if you know what you are doing, Ducky, you can learn everything you need to know by reading the HOW-TOs and the sources, then you don't need a "tutorial."

I bought this book thinking it would shed some light on why emacs says "File mode specification error: (void-function linux-c-mode)" when I put the comment /* -*- linux-c -*- */ as the first line of my source file. Emacs complains, yet that comment invokes exactly what I want: 8-space tabs. But this book doesn't talk about C mode, so it remains a mystery.

If you have taken the wise step and decided to learn emacs you're aware of the eLISP substructure underlying your C- and M- actions. Once you're aware that this power is there, you will invariably want to use it to make some routine editing patterns faster / more efficient.

I mean heck, you learned emacs to hack code in, didn't you? Why not hack emacs to make your hacking faster?

In true geek fashion, I thought that this book would be, like so many of ORA's books, a canonical START on the monopoly board of computer / technology progress.

It wasn't really.

It started with introducing the notion of evaluating a lisp command string (in this case, making sure you have your ^H, ^? and Erase sorted out) - and goes from there. Too little time is spent on primitives (see, not really a programming guide as such) and instead uses a series of examples to make you think about how to use eLISP to handle an issue.

....but that's not what you expect from an ORA book is it? You want the reference and the step-by-step -- you want to know you went to the source to get the answer and here was the path, right?

Well for that you are actually better off going to gnu.org and reading the elisp manual there. It much more closely approximates the path that the ORA books (i.e. the camel book, etc.) take.

Where this fits in -- a nice reference, maybe.

IF YOU DO get this book, you'll find some handy examples and a few 'tricks of the trade. ' Nothing really great though.

...is reading this book. Step 1 would be to read O'Reilly's "Learning Gnu Emacs" from cover to cover. Step 2 would be to start bookmarking "Info" pages in the Emacs and Elisp manuals (inside Emacs; Emacs can bookmark places in files you've edited, bookmark directories, bookmark Info pages, etc.); and then you are ready to read this book.

While you can become proficient in Emacs just by learning a handful of commands, to be truly productive and happy you must learn most of the features and use them. This is a very long process (over a year for me, learning a little bit more each day). But what I've gained from the journey is invaluable. For example, one insight I've gotten is that Emacs can work very well for the novice (open/type/save/close) and the expert (write major mode to handle new language) equally well, and this idea can apply to any software project. (Sure, it sounds simplistic but the moment of "Aha!" is more profound than that.)

This book is fairly small and progressively introduces new ideas in writing Lisp code to add functionality to Emacs. I think in retrospect the topics covered were well chosen because I have looked up the examples time and again to use code snippets.

Step 4 in mastering Emacs is to read the newsgroup gnu.emacs.help every day for a few months, which will teach you about a great many features Emacs has that are not covered in any book (or covered very well, like term mode, font-lock and many more).

The book is well paced and easy to read. The concepts build naturally upon one another. Glickstein provides real world examples to introduce new features. I highly recommend it!

This is actually a fairly easy to read and short book, due in part, to the many illustrations. If you are looking for a deep, scholarly tome on the history of Ireland, buy something else. If, however, you are planning on a trip to Ireland and want some basics with regard to the culture and politics of IE, give this a read. I read this along with the historical-fiction novel, "Trinity" to prepare for my trip and felt the balance between the two was a nice way to learn the highlights of Irish history.

A mixed bag, this. Good for a brief exposure to some of the more renowned moments and movements in Irish history, but hard to follow at many spots. The early chapters seem to have been written by a different hand than the later. The language of the earlier ones is hard to follow and no coherent picture formed in my mind about that time. The later ones are easier because they're more "newsy" in style. You're only going to get the highlights of the times (up until mid-1984) and even those are at times disjointed, or strung together with facts the reader is presumed to already be familiar with.

I borrowed this from the library. I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad I didn't buy it.

This is a brief and impartial account of the history of Ireland from 3000 BC up until 1994 . There is no in depth analysis of the historical figures involved but just a simple yet concise narative of the important events that shaped this country .

It is after England's brutal conquest of the native Irish , and the protestant plantations that followed , that this book comes into it's own , as it gives the reader a clear understanding of the political dynamics at work that would eventually lead to a divided Ireland .

The book has a generous amount of illustrations and photographs that compliment the very readable text . I'd recommend this book as a starter to anybody who is interested in finding out about the tragic history of Ireland , or as an overview to more in depth books for the discerning reader .

If there's a better overview of Irish history out there, I'd like to see it!

The book is in 'school' format, for want of a better word, that is to say very generously illustrated. Don't let that give you the impression that the book is superficial. This man and wife team know their Ireland inside out and are both topnotch writers. Maire MacEntee is one of the most eminent, if not the most eminent, Irish language poets alive, and her husband is very well known as a scholar and essayist.

Read and enjoy!

This is truly one of the most lacking of the general histories of Ireland available on the market. Conor Cruise O'Brien and Maire O'Brien provide a rather pourous account of the history of Ireland and manage to not quite even skim the surface. Leaving out many of the events that would embarass the author or not promote his own political agenda, this book is at best a waste of time. There are many, many better accounts available.

Balling captures the essence of the global warming debate. Facts, not hype, are presented in a scientific way. Worth the read for those interested in all sides of the global warming debate.

Which ultamitely works no doubt very profitably for the author. One can only hope he's used his money to buy land on high ground.

A lot of the misinformation on global warming has involved the use of three or four greenhouse skeptics like Dr. Balling. These are people who take a different position from the more than two-thousand scientists reporting to the United Nations, and they have been given access to the media by money being spent by the petroleum industry. This book is no more than a paid advertisement by big oil.

"The Heated Debate," is a very balanced discussion of theory and data related to the greenhouse effect. The author, Dr. Robert Balling, Jr., is Director of the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University. He's published some seventy technical articles.

Dr. Balling is a climate consultant to the United Nations, the World Meteorological Organization, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe he is a pure researcher, "untainted" by connections to any political agenda. His writing is scholarly, well foot-noted and documented, and he offers a history and critique of greenhouse theory and empirical data.

His general conclusion is that more than a little skepticism is warranted, and that we should wait ten years or so before investing TRILLIONS of $ on carbon withdrawal, and DRASTICALLY changing all of our lives, until a MUCH better understanding is established. The theory, measurements, and understanding of the greenhouse effect are advancing rapidly, and drastically changing the original predictions from only a few decades ago. Measured warming has been nowhere near the earlier predictions, and the mathematical models are being constantly revised.

For anyone interested in global warming this book is a very interesting and different perspective than that propounded by politicians and the media!!

What is the latest global religion? Environmentalism. Finally a book that sheds the light of skepticism and science on the environmental hype and scaremongering.

There's a lot of interesting material in this book: Nazi ideas of the proper diet, indications that the Nazi Institute for Cancer Research may have been a cover for developing bioweapons, and, of course, the chapter that has garnered the most attention: "The Campaign Against Tobacco". Throughout the book Proctor uses the Nazi concern with cancer to show that Nazi science, while often motivated by bizarre or evil notions, wasn't always shoddy. He also shows that it's a mistake to think of Nazi Germany as a totalitarian monolith that always reflected Hitler's will.

For instance, while Hitler wanted to eventually ban smoking, he was ultimately defeated by cultural resistance to the notion and the desire to keep tobacco taxes coming in and tobacco exports leaving. Still, it was Nazi science that first indicated that smoking was harmful though its general emphasis on clinical studies with few patients caused it to be ignored by epidemiologists in other countries. However, the Anglo-American scientists who made their reputations by proving that smoking was a major cause of lung cancer were preceded more than 10 years by Franz H. Muller's dissertation on that link, the first "case-control epidemiologic" study to do so. And he did it in 1939 Germany.

Besides its material on Nazi scientific efforts to diagnose, cure, and prevent cancer, the book also has some very interesting illustrations of Nazi public health propaganda. My favorite illustration, though, is of various animals giving the "Heil" salute to Goering who banned vivisection in 1933.

My one quibble with the book is Proctor's insistence that his book provides no aid and comfort to those, like libertarian Jacob Sullum -- whose book FOR YOUR OWN GOOD: THE ANTI-SMOKING CRUSADE AND THE TYRANNY OF PUBLIC HEALTH is specifically mentioned in the final chapter -- who wish to link anti-smoking efforts with Nazis. I've never heard any anti-smoking activist propose euthanasia programs or putting people in concentration camps. However, the Nazi regime justified its coercive public health measures with the philosophy that your body was state property and "nutrition was not a private matter". And, as in modern America, economic rationales were given for the Nazi laws intended to make life difficult for smokers. Proctor also speculates, in the Prologue, that public health measures like the Nazi war on tobacco could have been one of the appealing tunes in the siren suite of Hitler's fascism. Not everyone became a Nazi to kill Jews. And not all the doctors who signed up with the Nazi Party were quacks. This book does provide some evidence that coercive public health measures that go beyond mere education can spring from a totalitarian impulse.

As we walk away from the twentieth century, its most publicized reign of terror, Nazi Germany, continues to confound many. Modern history has tirelessly portrayed the sheer evil unleashed on Europe by Hitler and the National Socialist Party. The Nazis, along with the Soviet Communists, ensured that the people of Central and Eastern Europe had to endure at least a half-century of life within the brutal confines of totalitarian society. However, the passage of time presents us an opportunity to see Nazism as something much subtler than an overpowering evil force.

Historian Robert N. Proctor guides readers through Hitler-led Germany in "The Nazi War on Cancer." He examines a ruling regime and society grappling with health problems such as the exposure of factory workers to carcinogens in the plant, the damage caused by alcohol and tobacco use and the impact of poor diet. Proctor considers how public health concerns influenced the goal of creating a stronger, healthier and racially-pure population.

The deliberation over public health during the Nazi era pushed German researchers and scientists ahead of their counterparts around the rest of the industrialized world in connecting many health problems to the fast-paced and often stressful twentieth century lifestyle. Proctor does not portray the German medical elite as being completely manipulated by the Nazis. In fact, many men of sceince used the Nazi takeover of Germany as an opening to purge Jews, Socialists and Communists from important research positions. Proctor concludes that the Nazi experience with public health gives us an opportunity to understand the appeal and triumph of fascism as more than an aberration. Overall, Proctor presents a solid study of German medicine under Nazi rule. He brings many interesting facts to light which may surprise many readers who picture the Nazis as an all-powerful wave washing over and consuming all of Germany. In presenting his study, Proctor is mindful that many may misuse his facts to discredit modern public health iniatives or to justify the existence of Nazism though he does not let this stop him from delivering a thougt-provoking interpretation of a little known aspect of twentieth century history.

Robert Proctor presents a great deal of evidence that the nazis' exerted massive control over most facets of ordinary citizen's lives. Yet somehow, he never reaches the obvious conclusion that such compulsive regulations,even if arguably well intentioned,ultimately lead to a large scale sacrifice of basic freedoms.

He explains how the nazis greatly restricted tobacco advertising, banned smoking in most public buildings, increasingly restricted and regulated tobacco farmers growing abilities, and engaged in a sophisticated anti-smoking public relations campaign. (Suing tobacco companies for announced consequences was a stunt that mysteriously eluded Hitler's thugs.) Despite the frightening parallels to the current war on tobacco, Mr. Proctor never even hints at the analogy. Curiously, he seems to take an approach that such alleged concern for public health shows nazism to be a more complex dogma than commonly presumed. While nothing present in the book betokens even a trace of sympathy for the Third Reich, this viewpoint seems incredibly naive. It's easy to wonder if Hitler and company were truly concerned with promoting public health. The unquenchable lust for absolute control is a far more believable motive.

Incongruously some of the book's desultory details lend further certitude to its unpromulgated thesis. Hitler not only abstained from tobacco; he also never drank and was,for the most part--a vegetarian. Frighteningly he also was an animal rights activist. The book reruns a nazi-era cartoon depicting many liberated lab animals giving the nazi salute to Hermann Goring after he outlawed animal experimentation and promised to send violators to a concentration camp. Also included is a fitting quote -now too widely suppressed from Joseph Goebbles, `the fuhrer is deeply religious, though completely anti-Christian; he views Christianity as a symptom of decay." Controversial as it may be in some circles, such a quote proves that nazism viewed Christianity as hatefully as it did Judaism. Passing coverage is given to the Third Reich's forays into euthanasia and eugenics. Another striking morsel is the reporting of a widespread nazi-era whispered joke `What is the ideal German? Blond like Hitler. Slim like Goring. Masculine like Goebbles...' implying that Gautlier Goebble's homosexuality was common knowledge. Nazi linguistic restrictions seem to be the counterpart of modern day `hate speech.' Words such as `catastrophe,' sabotage,' and `assassination' were to be avoided, and in a portentous move, `cripple' was replaced by `handicapped. Proctor also suggests `the word `enlightenment' (was) probably used more in the nazi period than at any other time.'

Perhaps the ultimate overlooked point of this work is the suggestion that Adolph Hitler with his anti-tobacco, anti-religion, pro-animal rights, pro-government intrusion would find success as a modern day liberal.

A most interesting subject, not least because of similarities between today's "health nazis" and the real nazis! But for the non-specialist reader (such as myself) there is a little too much mundane detail, and discussion of what paper was published in what year, who wrote it, how often it was cited ...

One nice aspect: Proctor has no time for "cultural relativism" applied to mass murder, and is free of the prolix heavy prose many academics favor.

Pump User's Handbook (Hardcover)
by Heinz P. Bloch (Author), Allan R. Budris (Author)
# Hardcover: 440 pages
# Publisher: Fairmont Press; 1 edition (July 13, 2004)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 082474814X
# ISBN-13: 978-0824748142
# Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 1 inches
# Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds

I want to order some books, I need one title two book

Pump User's Handbook: Life Extension, Second Edition
by Heinz P. Bloch

In this book are the secrets to increasing pump operating life and Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) so that turnaround planning and process reliability remain under your control. Repeat pump reliability failures are acceptable only until they cause major secondary damage or injury and by that time it is too late. So protect yourself from unacceptable consequences by requiring the basic, proven steps to achieving life cycle expectations discussed in this book. Seventy of these books are being put to good use in my refinery alone and they have paid for themselves many times over in terms of reliability improvement, RCFA, and incident/accident prevention.

I ordered this book for our company technical library, because i didn't want to purchase it for myself until reading the contents. The only problem now is that all of our Rotating machinery specialists keep checking it out!

The content is highly educational, original, direct to the point, and will improve any pump's mean time between failures. So if you are a beginner to pumps, first purchase Karassik's "Pump Handbook", and then get this one, its well worth it.

The second edition is substantially re-written, when compared to the first. Some of the errors and oversights from the first edition can be found in the second edition. Plus, there are some newly inputted errors and confusing things.

For example, in a discussion of the recent KSR v. Teleflex case, the author states that "The KSR case overturned an important line of cases . . ." from the Federal Circuit (page 58).

But this statement is false.

The U.S. Supreme Court merely held that the case law relating to the teaching-suggestion-motivation test was still valid, but that this test should not be applied rigidly. The best commentary on this test is in Federal Register Oct. 10, 2007, vol. 72, pages 57526-57535. The Federal Register discloses that, "The Federal Circuit erred by applying the teaching-suggestion-motivation test in an overly rigid and formalistic way." The author should have used the second edition to describe this optional test, and how to apply this optional test, and not merely to dismiss it as being "overturned." The author got it all wrong. The test was NOT overturned. The U.S.Supreme Court merely held that the test was optional and not required.

Recent cases from the Federal Circuit, e.g., in 2008, emphasize the fact that the teaching-suggestion-motivation test is still a valid test. According to an opinion from July 2008 (Eisai v. Reddy's (Fed. Cir. 2008): "In keeping with the flexible nature of the obviousness inquiry, KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 1739 (2007), the requisite motivation can come from any number of sources and need not necessarily be explicit in the art." To repeat, it is not correct to state or imply that the motivation test has been overturned.

See also, Takeda v. Alphapharm (Fed. Cir. 2007), which held that the motivation test to be valid:

"While the KSR Court rejected a rigid application of the teaching, suggestion, or motivation ("TSM") test in an obviousness inquiry, the Court acknowledged the importance of identifying "a reason that would have prompted a person of ordinary skill in the relevant field to combine the elements in the way the claimed new invention does" in an obviousness determination. KSR, 127 S. Ct. at 1731. Moreover, the Court indicated that there is "no necessary inconsistency between the idea underlying the TSM test and the Graham analysis." Id. A s l o n g a s the test is not applied as a "rigid and mandatory" formula, that test can provide "helpful insight" to an obviousness inquiry. "

Furthermore, KSR v. Teleflex is just a speed-bump in the history of the obviousness requirement. Graham v. John Deere is the most important U.S.Supreme Court on the obviousness requirement. But this book fails to mention or describe Graham v. John Deere. This is like writing a book about the 20th century that discloses the Korean War, but fails to mention World War II.

The second edition of GENERIC CHALLENGE, in commentary about pharmacology patents and claims, states that the most important claim to a drug is a claim to a compound (page 82 of second edition). This much is true. But the author then states that the next best claim, covering the drug, is a claim covering a method for using the drug in medical treatment.

This is arguably false.

First of all, please note that in Europe (PCT patent application), claims to methods for medical treatment are not permitted. Thus, where you want a claim for a method of medical treatment in a PCT patent application, what is used instead is a type of a methods of manufacture claim. Second, a methods of medical treatment claim is not so powerful, since it only enables you to sue doctors (an impractical task). Third, a method of medical treatment claim is not of highest priority, since might be better and more powerful is a claim to a method for manufacturing the drug (here you can sue the manufacturer).

On page 49, the author states that "claims tend to be long-winded because the regulations require each claim to consist of one sentence. The broadest patents have the shortest claims."

This is false.

This statement is wrong for three reasons. First, the regulations do NOT set forth this requirement. Please see 37 CFR 1.75. There is nothing here about 1-sentence claims. Instead, the requirement is in MPEP 608.01(m). The statement is also wrong because adding extra words to a claim is commonly used to achieve claims of greater breadth. The author forgets that certain extra words, such as "comprising" or "or", are universally used to broaden claims. Again, the author might have described how "comprising language" is used to broaden claims. The author also might have explained how "or language" is used to broaden claims. But nothing is said about these techniques for broadening claims. The author's writing is wrong for a third reason. What can be broad is a CLAIM in a patent, not the patent itself. From the writing, the reader might infer that the SPECIFICATION determines whether a patent's coverage is broad or narrow. But this is not the case. An author writing for a novice audience should not be using careless phraseology in referring to established, clearly defined concepts.

On page 35, the author states that "A patent is a sword, not a shield. . ."

This is false.

As soon as a patent is filed, it becomes a powerful shield, as it can become prior art under 35 USC 102(e), preventing competitors from gaining allowed claims. Moreover, as soon as a patent application is published, it also becomes a shield, both in the U.S. and in Europe. (By "sword," what is meant of course is using the patent for litigation against an infringer. By "shield" what is meant is something more passive, for example, use as prior art against a competitor's patent or patent application.)

This "book" contains only about 30,000 words. This is the length of a typical law review article. At $26.00, this tiny "book" is no bargain.

As a consultant in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry, I found this reading to be pleasantly illuminating and gently absorbing (took only 2 leisurely days to read). Although having some exposure to law school pedagogy and lingo myself, Mr. Voet explains the legal underpinnings of patent law with a simplistic and logical exposition interlaced with sufficient detail, precision and nuance (as is expected in any effective discussion on law). He begins his tour from the basic definition of a patent, and guides the reader through important matters like patent claims, interference, "doctrine of equivalents", and some noteworthy legal precedents that guide current interpretations of patent law (for example, how the Merck v. Integra decision provides "safe harbor exemption" for infringements that pertain to preclinical and clinical research pursuant to FDA submission). Not lost in Voet's description is the distinctive legal environments and dynamics in other key pharmaceutical markets like the E.U., Canada and Japan, and those variations are aptly examined. While there is indeed a distinction between patent rights and market exclusivities, Voet describes the interplay between the two in the ever critical task of product life-cycle management. His own pharma industry experience enriches his exposition by revealing industry-specific patterns (like the propensity for innovator companies to file broad drug compound patents and padding with narrow patents on formulation, new indications, etc.), and walking through illustrative examples and case studies (like Syntex's life-cycle strategy on Acular 0.5% against generic threats by the notorious Apotex). Despite the admittedly dynamic nature of patent law and market exclusivities, Voet's material is refreshingly up-to-date (referring to events/considerations as recent as 2007-08). Key takeaways are neatly summed up at the end of each chapter, and an exhaustive glossary is available to keep the reader reminded of key terminology. Overall, an easy and necessary read for anyone wanting to delve in the complex arena of pharmaceutical product life-cycle management.

This book is all about exclusivity: how the patent and FDA laws interact to give only one biotech or pharma company the exclusive rights to sell a drug. Exclusivity matters more than just about anything else in the drug industry - there's safety, efficacy, and exclusivity, in that order - yet I can't think of a single book which addresses the subject the author does here. Every executive in the biotech/pharma industry should be required to read it; anyone wanting to understand the patent system and how the industry uses it should read this book, as well. The author writes clearly and engagingly, and makes the most complicated subjects interesting and easy to understand. I consulted the first edition regularly in my work in biotech, and look forward to using this revised edition, as well, which has many more examples and illustrations.

The whole book could have been written in half of its size. Not very well written due to being too wordy, hard to follow.

Everyons should read M. Mead's research. Her research explains many issues that remain current topics of contention.

Jack Valentine is a British agent who accepts the mission to locate the body of an American agent in Ireland, killed in 1974, and remove whatever papers are on it. He is joined by an old friend of his, Liam Mellows, wanted as a possible informer by the IRA. Both getting the papers off the dead body and keeping a step ahead of Liam's pursuers is beginning to get more and more of an impossible task.
This winner of the newly formed CWA Steel Dagger Award for thriller writing is actually a dull, dreary and dreadfully slow read. There are moments of sheer terror. However, the concentration is on realistic characterizations with great depth. The author succeeds in that regard. The characters lack true empathy which leads to apathy. The bottom line is that as a thriller THE SIRIUS CROSSING simply doesn't thrill.

Jack Valentine is a self-doubting, semi-super hero of sorts in the Jim Rockford (Rockford Files) genre. Middle-aged Valetine is a likeable and unwilling secret agent--a cross between Sam Spade's earthiness and James Bond suave. He is also very intuitive (a good quality for his profession)and unlike Mr. Bond who spends his enroaching middle-aged years shaking martinis and womanizing while he dodges bullets, Jack Valentine is preoccupied with his boat and art collection while he sails the wild Irish north sea and takes out the bad guys. The Sirius Crossing is full of exciting, unexpected twists and logical, if somewhat bizarre conclusions. Most importantly, it is a really good story. I will read it again. And again.

In the Preface he says he will be using Zorn's Lemma in proof and never any where states the Lemma.
His first statement is " Let k be a field"; he never gives a formal definition of a field.
I shouldn't maybe gripe because I got this copy ( a few pennies and postage), because it is a plague on the market as books go?
As another reviewer points out, it has some good and unique aspects,
like a discussion of Dedekind fields and of Eisenstein polynomials.
The major problem is that you need three other books to read this one
:to explain the terms, to explain the notation like the divisors sums and products, to explain his definitions...
Mostly he assumes too much of the reader or student.
This book makes me very sorry for those who study Mathematics in the British or European systems: one shouldn't need a stack of texts to translate a text.
I have read worse, but not many.
I really hate writing reviews like this, but since the other review is 5 stars, there really has to be a reality check here.

The book starts with a very clear presentation of the principles of Galois theory in two chapters: "Algebraic extensions" and "Galois theory", compareble to Artins short book Galois Theory: Lectures Delivered at the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame Mathematical Lectures, Number 2). The next chapter deals with valuation theory of fields. Then follows a chapter on extensions of valuated fields. The last chapter is about Dedekind fields and extensions of Dedekind fields and states and proofs the unique factorisation theorems for rings in those fields.

The book contains more than 200 exercises many of which are challenging.

This softbound newly reprinted edition is clear and light; considering the original version I knew back in 1970's was a thick, heavy hardbound.

The book is a compilation of several authors on linear programming, it includes a table explaining the genesis of linear programming and the programming code for computer calculation.

It is a rich and indispensable book for optimization problems.

I disagree with the other reviewer. This is a textbook on linear programming and its extension written by George Dantzig the inventor of the simplex method. Even though the simplex method is still popular and useful there are other interesting algorithms that were dsicovered in the 1980s and 1990s that have theoretical and in some cases practical value.

In 1974 I was a graduate student in Operations Research ae Stanford and I took the three quarter mathematical programming course sequence. The first two quarters were taught by George Dantzig out of this book. George was a delightful person to talk to and probably a good thesis advisor and his stories about his graduate school days and the early years at RAND are delightful. However his lectures were disorganized and vague. I found it impossible to learn much from them and the book was not much help either as it too was vague, disjointed and not well organized. Better understanding of the basics of linear programming can be gotten from the fine general books on operations research such as the book by Hillier and Lieberman and the one by Wagner.

I do not know what is the best modern book on linear programming is. It should have good coverage of the simplex method and a lot of applications. Leontiff systems and other special structured programming problems that lead to modifications of the simplex method are covered in this book and should also be in the "ideal" linear progamming book. Integer programming and other special cases of problems with linear constraints should also be included along with alternative algorithms to the simplex method.

This book is more valuable for historic purposes, as it was Dantzig's first book and the first account of the simplex method by its inventor.