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Operations research: Principles and practice
156
Book
sonably about management software with the implicit assumption that Big Blue is the only solution. Secondly, among the 30 programs described, many of them never belonged to the top-10 sellers; it becomes ridiculous when one sees that famous programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Chart, dBase or Multiplan are ignored. And, since the book came out in 1985, you cannot expect to read anything about recent software, such as page editors. Last, but not least, when I want to have some knowledge about the possibilities and limits of a new piece of software, I prefer to read an extensive benchmark in a microcomputer publication. In conclusion, the only interest I see in that book lies in the general remarks made in its first part, but remarks of this type (and more up to date.. . ) can also be found in management or microcomputer publications. Her& THIRIEZ Centre HEC-ISA Jouy-en-Josas, France
A. RAVINDRAN, J.J. SOLBERG
D.T. PHILLIPS
and
Operations Research: Principles and Practice
Wiley, Chichester, 1987, xviii + 637 pages, E44.00 This book covers the conventional topics in an introductory OR text: linear programming, networks, division analysis, queues, inventories, simulation, dynamic and non-linear programming. The emphasis is on technique, and the nature of OR is discussed summarily in eleven pages at the beginning of the book. There are exercises at the end of each chapter, though most of them are straightforward (‘drill-type’) questions and there are few ‘mind expanding’ exercises. A book such as this has many competitors. Taha, Hillier and Lieberman, Daellenbach and George, and many others; there are several texts which cover comparable ground at much the same level. Why choose this one in preference to the others? This text requires only a limited mathematical background (though the reader must know some calculus and probability) and the exposition is largely through worked examples. The explanations are generally clear. This is a useful book on
Reviews
OR techniques, comprehensive considering i’ts introductory level. John M. NORMAN School of Management and Economic Studies The University of Shefjield Sheffield, United Kingdom
S.K. BHATNAGAR Network Analysis Techniques
Wiley, New Delhi, 1986, 264 pages This book is an introduction to critical path methods; it is written for practitioners and it may be useful as a first guide into the field. Classical network techniques are explained and illustrated with examples. As the author writes in the preface, “network analysis techniques are simple to understand and easy to apply”; one may wonder whether one really needs a whole book to get there. It is true that these techniques are often applied manually; but they are also used with computers. This is why there is a chapter on “Computers and Network Analysis”. This part should have been expanded: the reader who has reached that point in understanding the methods would have benefited from some indications on the implementation of these algorithms and on the data structures to be used. Perhaps a next edition will improve this point. D. de WERRA EPFL-DMA CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
S. TAYLOR Modelling Financial Time Series
Wiley, Chichester, 1986, xvi + 268 pages, E19.95 The last fifteen years or so have seen a consid: erable interest in the characteristics and behavior of financial markets particularly from economists and statisticians. A lot of the empirical work has been concerned with resting various forms of market efficiency and modeling risk. Despite the vast literature in the form of journal articles that
Book
sonably about management software with the implicit assumption that Big Blue is the only solution. Secondly, among the 30 programs described, many of them never belonged to the top-10 sellers; it becomes ridiculous when one sees that famous programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Chart, dBase or Multiplan are ignored. And, since the book came out in 1985, you cannot expect to read anything about recent software, such as page editors. Last, but not least, when I want to have some knowledge about the possibilities and limits of a new piece of software, I prefer to read an extensive benchmark in a microcomputer publication. In conclusion, the only interest I see in that book lies in the general remarks made in its first part, but remarks of this type (and more up to date.. . ) can also be found in management or microcomputer publications. Her& THIRIEZ Centre HEC-ISA Jouy-en-Josas, France
A. RAVINDRAN, J.J. SOLBERG
D.T. PHILLIPS
and
Operations Research: Principles and Practice
Wiley, Chichester, 1987, xviii + 637 pages, E44.00 This book covers the conventional topics in an introductory OR text: linear programming, networks, division analysis, queues, inventories, simulation, dynamic and non-linear programming. The emphasis is on technique, and the nature of OR is discussed summarily in eleven pages at the beginning of the book. There are exercises at the end of each chapter, though most of them are straightforward (‘drill-type’) questions and there are few ‘mind expanding’ exercises. A book such as this has many competitors. Taha, Hillier and Lieberman, Daellenbach and George, and many others; there are several texts which cover comparable ground at much the same level. Why choose this one in preference to the others? This text requires only a limited mathematical background (though the reader must know some calculus and probability) and the exposition is largely through worked examples. The explanations are generally clear. This is a useful book on
Reviews
OR techniques, comprehensive considering i’ts introductory level. John M. NORMAN School of Management and Economic Studies The University of Shefjield Sheffield, United Kingdom
S.K. BHATNAGAR Network Analysis Techniques
Wiley, New Delhi, 1986, 264 pages This book is an introduction to critical path methods; it is written for practitioners and it may be useful as a first guide into the field. Classical network techniques are explained and illustrated with examples. As the author writes in the preface, “network analysis techniques are simple to understand and easy to apply”; one may wonder whether one really needs a whole book to get there. It is true that these techniques are often applied manually; but they are also used with computers. This is why there is a chapter on “Computers and Network Analysis”. This part should have been expanded: the reader who has reached that point in understanding the methods would have benefited from some indications on the implementation of these algorithms and on the data structures to be used. Perhaps a next edition will improve this point. D. de WERRA EPFL-DMA CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
S. TAYLOR Modelling Financial Time Series
Wiley, Chichester, 1986, xvi + 268 pages, E19.95 The last fifteen years or so have seen a consid: erable interest in the characteristics and behavior of financial markets particularly from economists and statisticians. A lot of the empirical work has been concerned with resting various forms of market efficiency and modeling risk. Despite the vast literature in the form of journal articles that