# Review of Software Pearls by Jon Bentley

DevFeed: [Review of Software Pearls by Jon Bentley](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/pere-ki-oprogramowania-27761.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://gagor.pro/book/2009/perelki-oprogramowania/>)

Author: Tom

Published: 2009-09-10T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Tomasz Gągor](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/tomasz-gagor.md>)

Topics: [Algorithms](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/algorithms.md>), [Sorting](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/sorting.md>), [Algorithms, Complexity](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/algorithms-complexity.md>)

Tags: [algorithms](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/algorithms.md>), [book](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/book.md>), [books](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/books.md>), [personal](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/personal.md>), [sorting](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sorting.md>), [technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/technology.md>)

## AI overview

A personal review of Jon Bentley's book Software Pearls, focusing on its discussion of algorithms and the practical value of divide-and-conquer thinking. The article highlights sorting algorithms, compares Quick Sort and Heap Sort, and describes using a binary map to track execution of a complex task.

## Source excerpt

Perełki oprogramowania Seria Klasyka informatyki Author: Jon Bentley I've read few books about algorithms, but this one was my favorite. It's not a handbook/manual style, where you have all algorithms explained - it's rather a feast for though. From this book I learned principles like: "divide and conquer" (or how I prefer it: whatever you can, divide by two 😄). It might not be that obvious at first, but practical use cases are unlimited. My personal favorite is hanging the curtains: you start at edges, then in the middle, then you divide again and again until you have them perfectly symmetric. Of course, the most common use case are sorting algorithms, but even with those understanding why Quick Sort is not the best one, and Heap Sort wins competition allowed me to surprise many people from DBAs to Senior Software Engineers - they didn't know!