Ebook Art of Computer Programming (Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms - Part 1)

The title of Volume 4 is Combinatorial Algorithms, and when I proposed it I was strongly inclined to add a subtitle: The Kind of Programming I Like Best. My editors have decided to tone down such exuberance, but the fact remains that programs with a combinatorial flavor have always been my favorites. On the other hand I've often been surprised to find that, in many people's minds, the word "combinatorial" is linked with computational difficulty. Indeed, Samuel Johnson, in his famous dictionary of the English language (1755), said that the corresponding noun "is now generally used in an ill sense." Colleagues tell me tales of woe, in which they report that "the combinatorics of the sit- uation defeated us." Why is it that, for me, combinatorics arouses feelings of pure pleasure, yet for many others it evokes pure panic?
Nội dung trích xuất từ tài liệu:
Ebook Art of Computer Programming (Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms - Part 1)