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Data Structures for Data-Intensive Applications [pdf] (2023) (cs-people.bu.edu)

583 points by mfiguiere · 921 days ago · 26 comments on HN

Article summary

The article discusses data structures for data-intensive applications, providing a comprehensive survey of the space. It helps build a mental model of concerns to think about when building or using data structures in an application. The paper does not cover distributed systems in depth, except for a brief mention at the end. A table of contents is not readily available, but can be extracted manually or through tools.

Main themes

  • data structures
  • data-intensive applications
  • distributed systems
  • technical book pricing
  • data structure design
  • application development
  • industry disruption

What commenters say

  • The paper is a superb survey of data structures and helps build a mental model of concerns for application development.
  • Distributed systems are challenging and it's better to keep applications on a single machine if feasible, but the paper does not focus on this topic.
  • The book is highly recommended, but its high price on Amazon is a deterrent for some readers.
  • Alternative methods, such as torrents or used book shops, can provide access to the book at a lower cost.
  • A tool for designing optimal data structures is available, but can be difficult to find.
  • The paper does discuss important tradeoffs, such as row vs column oriented storage, but may not cover all relevant topics.
  • The high cost of technical books is a sign of a broken industry that needs disruption.
  • Manual extraction of a table of contents can be done through various methods, including using tools like pdftk.