From Mathematics to Generic Programming

In their new book From Mathematics to Generic Programming, C++ STL creator Alexander Stepanov and Information Retrieval researcher Daniel Rose show how programmers can become more effective by learning about the idea of abstraction and the math it relies on. In an engaging and accessible fashion, they describe how these mathematical results were first discovered and are surprisingly useful in programming. Aimed at a wider audience than the classic Elements of Programming by Stepanov and McJones, From Mathematics to Generic Programming takes a less formal approach, interleaving discussions of programming, mathematical results, and stories of the people who made these discoveries throughout history. The authors trace the development of common algorithms from ancient times to the present, and show how to generalize them to new applications — even to the secure protocols of modern Internet commerce. From Mathematics to Generic Programming is a great introduction to the core principles of generic programming for the professional programmer. The authors work through examples showing how to analyze the requirements of an algorithm and make it as general as possible. The book includes several programming “laws” of particular interest to those building software components.

Alexander A. Stepanov studied mathematics at Moscow State University from 1967 to 1972. He has been programming since 1972: first in the Soviet Union and, after emigrating in 1977, in the United States. He has programmed operating systems, programming tools, compilers, and libraries. His work on foundations of programming has been supported by GE, Polytechnic University, Bell Labs, HP, SGI, Adobe, and, since 2009, A9.com, Amazon’s search technology subsidiary. In 1995 he received the Dr. Dobb’s Journal Excellence in Programming Award for the design of the C++ Standard Template Library. Daniel E. Rose is a research scientist who has held management positions at Apple, AltaVista, Xigo, Yahoo, and A9.com. His research focuses on all aspects of search technology, ranging from low-level algorithms for index compression to human–computer interaction issues in web search. Rose led the team at Apple that created desktop search for the Macintosh. He holds a Ph.D. in cognitive science and computer science from University of California, San Diego, and a B.A. in philosophy from Harvard University.