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 | | Operations Research: An Introduction (6th Edition) by Hamdy A. Taha ISBN-10: 9780132729154 ISBN-10: 0-13-272915-6 ISBN-13: 9780132729154 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-272915-4 Hardcover 1996-12-27 Prentice Hall Find Lowest Price |
Reviews | ||
The Best Book, Period! I just want to respond to the CS major from Denmark. If he/she is that knowlegeable about what OR should or should not include, what is he/she doing taking an introductory course in the subject? This is not a book about writing computer codes for algorithms to please CS majors. It is a book that offers a comprehensive treatment of all three aspects of operations research (theory, applications, and computations), and it does it admirably. Also, if the CS major has read past the first few chapters, he/she will find all the LP/IP theory he/she desires. I belive that TORA is one of the best tutorial programs I (and my students) have ever used. It is easy to use and it gives instant feedback to actions initiated by the user. Also, as far as I know, TORA always gives the correct answers. I am currently teaching an introductory class from Taha's book, and I am very pleased with it (not to mention that its page count is about half the size of the competition -- without loss of substance, I must add) | ||
An excellent book I have used this book as a student some 20 years ago and continue to use it today in my line of work. I was surprised to read a CS student complaining that the book does not provide any LP theory. Huh! Apparently the reviewer did not go past the first two chapters because Chapter 7 gives all the necessary mathematical foundation for linear programming. The reviewer also talks about "signedness" difficulty in the book, something I don't understand because "signedness" is not a word in English. As for TORA, true the software is not an "orthodox" Windows development per se particularly for CS majors, but I find it refreshing that it is desigend to eliminate the need for a user manual. And this perhaps is the reason TORA is designed that way. It is very easy to use, and it can be used interactivly (with instant feedback) to help the reader understand the algorithmic details of the different OR techniques. I might also add that I used TORA's LP and IP modules many many times and have compared the results with those from AMPL and Excel Solver. Contrary to the CS reviewer claim,TORA always gave the correct answers. In summary, this book explains the basics of OR (theory, applications and computations)in a clear, concise, and straightforward manner using multitudes of examples. It is no wonder that it has been a leading textbook worldwide for over 35 years. | ||
Good book for introductory course This is a good book for an Management Science course book which does not go deep into theory. Primarily its good for business majors, however there are better books for business majors who dont want to be involved with the math using Excel exclusively. Ragsdales book comes to mind. However, there are plenty problems solved and so if you are one of those people who learn through solving problems this is a decent book. For theory and math pick Bazraas book on LP and NLP or Model Building by Paul Williams which I think is an excellent book. | ||
Avoid this one... I'm a student at a CS school in Denmark, doing a course in OR, and this book served as my first introduction to the subject. The book has several flaws making it virtually useless as teaching material. From the very start, he stumbles, as he tries to explain the simplex algorithm, yet he doesn't even give a single mathematical explanation of the process. There are two whole chapsters, devoted to simplex, yet there is no single "algorithmic" presentation in pseudo-code, of the algorithm. Other books (such as Introduction to Algorithms, 2nd ed, managers this fine.) Many of the more subtle points of OR are badly explained. How duality relates the primal is explained theoretically in virtually a single five centimeter space, far from sufficient to explain the many aspects of duality (a key issue in OR). Further, one of the initially very confusing aspects of LP solving, is the signedness of variables. There are several approaches in the industry, and Taha follows one. This is all good and all, but that he fails to explain, how the algorithms change, depending on what signedness one uses, is totally unforgivable in an introductory text. It makes it very confusing initially (and still) to read other authors text, since it's not clear how procedures vary from one text to another. The book's single saving grace, is that it has countless examples, but when you're looking for the mathematical reasoning behind a procedure, this book falls far short. A book that proudly proclaims on the backcover: "Complex mathematical concepts are explained by means of carefully designed numerical examples, essentially eliminating the need for [...] mathematical proofs." is not something you want. LP/IP programming IS math heavy, if you do not learn the theory, you will learn a very rigid and inflexible tool. Further the CD comes with a Visual Basic program, the likes of which I have never seen, except perhaps ten years ago on download.com. It's Windows only, and it has the poorest interface ever (it's so obvious that this used to be a console program, quickly ported to Windows). And what's worse, is that it gives /incorrect/ solutions! Our school has an installation of CPLEX, an industrial strength program for solving LP problems. Of course, one doesn't expect TORA (the name for Tahas LP solver) to handle as big cases as CPLEX can, but it seems only fair to expect it to give the correct results. | ||
operatiom research i want a key of operation research by hamdy taha(sixth edition) in which all odd and even no of question are solved. i will be very thankfull to u m2sajan@hotmail.com | ||