Many new topics are presented at this same accessible level. We have not lengthened, or increased in difficulty, the book's principal discussions of mainstream topics. We have tried to follow the intended spirit of that advice, even as we violate the letter of it. 'Don't let the book grow in size,' is the advice that we received from several wise colleagues.

The inevitable result of this input is that this Second Edition of Numerical Recipes is substantially larger than its predecessor, in fact about 50% larger both in words and number of included programs (the latter now numbering well over 300). It is a mixed blessing that we know more now than we did six years ago. There is a danger that, if we are not careful, we might produce a second edition that is weighty, balanced, scholarly, and boring. We wanted, then and now, to write a book that is informal, fearlessly editorial, unesoteric, and above all useful. The success of the first edition puts us now in a difficult, though hardly unenviable, position.

Our aim in writing the original edition of Numerical Recipes was to provide a book that combined general discussion, analytical mathematics, algorithmics, and actual working programs.

Program for bisection method in fortran