Les systèmes dynamiques discrets / François Robert

The book is very reader-friendly. The French is clear in the best sense, not at the cost of mystifying abstraction. The author makes interesting asides about modelling and has a moral tone. Examples abound, with diagrams of the relevant networks, to illustrate each concept and to show counter-examples. Their detailed calculations are often (rightly) omitted, and it could be a pleasant exercise for students to complete them. Each chapter also ends with a “Conclusion”, which summarizes the main points achieved. The book could be useful for those who advocate “Mathematics without calculus”, and it would be interesting to test whether students find the material easier before or after exposure to calculus. One test-case would be this: the afore-mentioned contraction criterion is a delightful analogue to one who knows the classical criterion, but it may well be meaningless to one who doesn't. How do students take it? Al it is easy to be carried away by the pure mathematics, but young students would probably be impatient to see more examples of applications of the theory, and not only to neuronal networks. Anyway, the reviewer enjoyed the book. (Zentralblatt)

Bibliogr. p. [293]-294. Index