Customer Reviews (1)

cream of corn without cream and corn
This is one of the few books that gives a really old, archaic, and far-from-accessible treatment of solvable cases of the decision problem. However, if you have a lot of patience and masochistic tendencies, you will be able to work through this book and come away with recurring brain seizures.

"The Classical Decision Problem" by Gurevich, Gradel and Borger is much more accessible and readable. The presentation is fairly clear and up-to-date. Obviously Ackermann can't be blamed for using older notation, but his proofs are not particularly easy to follow unless you are used to reading that sort of style--e.g. if you enjoy reading the original proofs of famous theorems by Lowenheim, Godel and others.

I wouldn't recommend it. Sign it out from your library's dungeon if need be and then be quick to cast it back into the infernal from whence it reared its ugly head!

(I'm giving it 3 stars because it is one of the few on the subject, and the honestly the content is amazing, it's just the presentation...my god, the presentation!) ... Read more