Discrete Structures, Logic and Computability

Hein's text addresses this issue by placing much greater emphasis on ideas from logic and methods of proof than most other books on discrete mathematics, such as the popular text by Rosen. In addition, Hein includes material relating important software concepts to abstract algebra, and he does this without slighting other common topics of discrete mathematics, such as sets, relations, functions, counting, automata, and computability. Software engineers who have learned from Hein's text will have practical tools that they can use to deal with the software correctness factor more effectively.

Besides all of these good qualities, the text is well organized, clearly written, and punctuated with deligtfully subtle humor. I plan to use it.


Second Review of Dr. Hein's Book   July 15, 2004
Peter Depeche (Portland State University, Portland, Oregon)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful

Now, since I took two terms of classes that used Dr. Hein's book, I had internal urges to write emails to Dr. Hein and praise him for his book and his lab manual (but I never did wrote to him, though). Instead, I decided to write to a broader audience, here at Amazon. I found the book ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, a Holistic Bible of Computer Logic so to speak, for every CS student. I have read and re-read the book and still reading it today, during the Summer Break. I scanned the whole book with a flatbed scanner because I needed to look things up often even as I studied other courses at Portland State University. I also highly recommend Dr. Hein's Prolog Lab Manual which guides you through the experiments designed to help understanding the Book's material. Marvelous Lab Manual, Dr. Hein! It is my opinion that Doctor Hein has a profound vision of where Computer Science is going and that's why he designed his Book and his lab manual this way. The Book and Lab Manual helped me tremendously to understand recursion and logic.
PS: I never write reviews of books, but this particular book have always prompted urges to praise it.


Excellent book!   August 27, 2003
Peter Depeche (Portland, OR United States)
5 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book! Easy to read and understand. I am an "A" student, at Portland State University and I think that people who wrote bad reviewes of this book did not read the book (just like they might read every 50th page of any other book). Bill Gates once said that every person is born to be able to understand only up to a certain level of abstraction. Just like some of us are born to be able to lift 500 lbs. and some only 50 lbs. In addition, a person has to have some background to be able to understand more advanced topics. The book is most excellent.


A Good Text   January 2, 2002
Janet Vorvick (Portland, OR USA)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful

I've taught from this text for 8 years. The excellent students have no problem with it. The average students complain that it is hard to understand. I don't think any text covering these topics could be easier to understand, actually.

There are plenty of examples in the text. However, the exercises tend to be significantly more complex than the examples. The answers to many exercises are in the back of the book, which is a great help to students.


Deep, but overly dense   February 22, 2008
Roguelazer (Massachusetts, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book provides excellent coverage of logic and computability (I haven't really looked at the "Discrete Structures" component yet), but is often unnecessarily verbose in its explanations. It would work well in conjunction with a well-taught class, but not necessarily as good on its own.