Date: Mon, 17 May 1993 21:21:20 GMT From: news@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU (News Account) To: comp-parallel@ncar.ucar.edu Newsgroups: comp.parallel Path: grit From: grit@CS.ColoState.EDU (Dale Grit) Subject: Parallel programming text: responses Originator: grit@CS.ColoState.EDU Sender: news@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU (News Account) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 17 May 1993 21:21:17 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: vivaldi.cs.colostate.edu Organization: Colorado State University, Computer Science Department Lines: 289 -- My Original Posting Read: I would like suggestions concerning a text book for a parallel programming course at the senior/begining graduate level. The course emphasizes the different parallel programming paradigms that are available. I would appreciate suggestions on texts that you like, and comments on any texts that I should avoid. ============================================================================= SUMMARY: The responses ranged from recommendation of a text, to "we haven't found a good text". A couple of authors responded. For the record, I used Lewis and El-Rewini "Introduction to Parallel Computing" (Prentice-Hall, 1992) last fall. It provides a good survey of the major parallel programming paradigms. I didn't like the chapter on functional programming, some details of rather obscure topics are included in the later chapters, and it lacks programming assignments. But the course went OK. I've organized the following responses alphabetically by the first author of the primary text mentioned in the response. Other comments are at the end. ------------------------------------------ From: mmisra@tektite.Mines.Colorado.EDU (Manavendra Misra) Dale, this is in response to your posting on comp.parallel about suggestions for a parallel programming text-book. I have recently got done teaching a course on Scientific Supercomputing here at Mines. We had asked the students to buy "Highly Parallel Computing" by Almasi and Gottlieb. However, this wasn't the best book for our needs--I think that a good book for a Scientific Supercomputing course like ours doesn't exist! ------------------------------------------ From: olsson@cs.ucdavis.edu (Ron Olsson) Subject: Parallel programming textbook suggestions You might be interested in Greg Andrews' book, mentioned in the attached, on general principles of concurrent programming. You might also be interested in the SR concurrent language, which allows one to program parallel/distributed/concurrent systems; the SR implementation is public domain and FTP-able. Concurrent Programming: Principles and Practice, by Gregory R. Andrews (Benjamin/Cummings, 1991, ISBN 0-8053- 0086-4). SR is described in The SR Programming Language: Concurrency in Practice, by Gregory R. Andrews and Ronald A. Olsson (Benjamin/Cummings, 1993, ISBN 0-8053- 0088-0). An overview of version 1 of the language and implementation appeared in the January, 1988, issue of ACM TOPLAS (10,1, 51-86). SR is available by e-mail or anonymous FTP from cs.arizona.edu. _____________________________ From: Pierre.Delisle@Eng.Sun.COM (Pierre DeLisle) CS140 at Stanford used the following: Concurrent Programming - Principles and Practice. Very good textbook, but extremely heavy on assertional reasoning... which is supposed to make us better programmers! Please forward me a list of the textbooks that were recommended to you. Thanks. _____________________________ From: Michael Barnett I just finished teaching a course for which I am including a description at the end of the message. I was pretty happy with the text, but used a lot of articles to add to it. I ended up not doing anything with the optional text. Let me know if you want more information. Course: CS 404/504 Formal Methods and Parallel Systems Concurrency in Programming and Database Systems A. Bernstein and P. Lewis, Jones and Bartlett, 1993. Optional Text: Introduction to Parallel Computing, T. Lewis and H. El-Rewini, Prentice Hall, 1992. ------------------------------------ From: dfausett@zach.fit.edu ( Donald W. Fausett) Dale, I am currently teaching an introductory graduate level course in parallel computing. Two undergraduates are also taking the class. The course has a math designation, and it is being taken by students from math, computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. The text I am using is: Parallel and Distributed Computation: Numerical Methods, Dimitri P. Bertsekas and John N. Tsitsiklis, Prentice Hall, 1989. It covers most of the basic ideas in a thorough manner. I am happy with it. The names of some other good books that I am aware of follows. Good luck with your course. -- Don Introduction to Parallel and Vector Solution of Linear Systems, James M. Ortega, Plenum Press, 1988. Parallel Computations, Garry Rodrigue, ed., Academic Press, 1982. Efficient Parallel Algorithms, Alan Gibbons and Wojciech Rytter, Cambridge University Press, 1988. The Design and Analysis of Parallel Algorithms, Selim G. Akl, Prentice Hall, 1989. Introduction to Parallel Programming, Steven Brawer, Academic Press, 1989. Parallel Programming, R. H. Perrott, Addison-Wesley, 1987. Parallel Processing and Medium-Scale Multiprocessors, Arthur Wouk, ed., SIAM, 1989. Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing, Garry Rodrigue, ed., SIAM, 1989. Parallel Algorithms and Matrix Computation, Jagdish J. Modi, Oxford University Press, 1988. ---------------------------------- From: ricki R. Wegner Joseph JaJa, An Introduction to Parallel Algorithms, Addison-Wesley 1992. Looooooooovely; but except the first chapter it is on PRAMs only. Then there is a ginormous book by Leighton, but I forgot the title. Didn't try that one, but my boss likes it. Have fun, ricki ___________________________________ From: andrew@cs.adelaide.edu.au (Andrew Wendelborn) We've been using Lewis and El-Rewini "Introduction to Parallel Computing" (Prentice-Hall, 1992) at final year u/g level with some success. It is not perfect, but covers the major paradigms. At graduate level, I would supplement it with selected papers for greater depth in some areas. The book by Gottlieb and Almasi is also good; it is hardware oriented, but makes some useful comments on programming. regards Andrew ------------------------------------------------ From: Francois Genolini The University of Westminster (LONDON) runs an MSc in Parallel and Distributed Computing (sorry for the commercial), and recommends (among others): T.G.Lewis and H.El-Rewini, 'Introduction to Parallel Computing' Prentice-Hall 92 ---------------------------------------- From: Ted Lewis For a general (survey) course on parallel computing, you might try the 1992 Prentice=Hall book by myself and Hesham El-Rewini: "Intro to Parallel Computing", but it doesnot have alot of programming examples. ------------------------------------------------- From: Fethi A Rabhi I taught a similar course this year and I could not find a suitable book on parallel programming. Most of the material is spread out between Concurrency, Parallel Algorithms and Parallel Architectures textbooks. The only ones which are more or less OK are: -T.G. Lewis and El-Rewini, Introduction to parallel computing, Prentice-Hall, 1992, ISBN: 0-13-498916-3. Comment : This book is about parallel languages and programming. It's the most up-to date I've seen but sometimes gets into too many (insignificant) details and lacks an overall structure. -R.H. Perrot, Parallel Programming, Addison Wesley, 1987. Comment : Some of the languages are a bit out of date now, spends too much time explaining concurrency aspects. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rick LaRowe I taught what sounds like a similar course last fall. The "official" textbook for the course was "Introduction to Parallel Programming" by Lewis and El-Rewini. I chose it based primarily on the table of contents. It turned out that I didn't particularly like the text, so I pretty much ignored it. I assigned reading out of it, but my lectures and tests and so forth I just did on my own. I think it worked out ok. Since I need to teach this course again in the fall, I'd appreciate it if you'd forward whatever feedback you get. I'd jump at the chance to switch if something comes along. Unfortunately, most of the alternatives I've seen are too focused on either one programming model (or language), or too focused on just the algorithms or architecture stuff. I want something that focusses on programming! Good luck, Rick LaRowe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: jsmith@mcs.drexel.edu (Justin Smith) Here is a description of a book I wrote: Title: The Design and Analysis of Parallel Algorithms Author: Justin R. Smith Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0-19-507881-0 He includes a table of contents which I'm sure he will send to you. ---------------------------------------------------- From: ramadan@cs.widener.edu (Mazin Ramadan) Hi: "The Design and Analysis of Parallel Algrithms" by Justin R. Smith ISBN 0-19-507881-0. is one of the best books in the market, and i have seen more then a few Good luck Mazin ---------------------------------------------------- From: ncs@rt.el.utwente.nl (Nan C Schaller [R.I.T]) Dale, I would be interested in seeing a summary of responses that you receive. We at RIT have found this to be a problem. Currently, I put a bunch of texts on reserve in the library and do not "use" any for our course. Nan Schaller --------------------------------------------- From: vavasis@cs.cornell.edu (Stephen Vavasis) I taught a course this semester on parallel scientific computing. I did not find a suitable textbook, so I based the whole course on my notes. I did get one or two helpful handouts being prepared by people at Colorado. The documents are available by anonymous ftp from cs.colorado.edu, directory /pub/cs/HPSC. Dale H. Grit Tel: (303) 491-7033 Department of Computer Science Email: grit@CS.Colostate.EDU Colorado State University Fax: (303) 491-6639 Ft. Collins, CO 80523