[.ca] Intelligent Optimisation Techniques: Genetic Algorithms, ... (ISBN 1852330287)

Very useful book:
This is a very useful book. It starts by introducing very important and interesting techniques in optimisation i.e. genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search and neural networks. It continues by giving examples of how the techniques have been applied in various case studies. The book also contains code so that users have a head start in implementing the techniques described. This book is good for beginners because it describes the basics of the techniques. It is also suitable for more advanced researchers because the case studies provoke ideas for further work. In conclusion, this book is a useful addition to the bookshelf of any researcher interested in intelligent optimisation.

The worst book ever:
I bought this book because it has source code for simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, tabu search and neural networks. I have used the three first source code and ... they are so buggy. They're wrote in C but doesn't compile due to evident syntax errors (so evident, are they here so as to made these source code unusable ?). The content of the book is not equilibrate (some metaheuristics aren't discussed thoroughly). If the authors use there source code, I think evereything presented in this book is completely false. Don't buy it, there are some better books to buy.

Superficial:
This book gave a superficial coverage on 4 optimization techniques in Chapter 1. Out of the 4 techniques, only Genetic Algorithm was explained slighty more in detail. The rest are merely short examples. That is about all you will get from this book (one brief Chapter on ALL 4 techniques).