Author: Martin Schubert
Date: 16:29:24 05/15/01
Go up one level in this thread
On May 15, 2001 at 13:02:11, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On May 15, 2001 at 11:54:10, David Rasmussen wrote: > >>On May 15, 2001 at 06:35:42, Martin Schubert wrote: >> >>> >>>O(...) is about asymptotical behaviour. If n is bounded, it doesn't make sense >>>to talk about asymptotical behaviour. >>> >>>Martin >> >>Exactly. > > >not exactly. O(n) discussions can be asymptotical in nature, if the "bound" >is large enough to be considered infinite. > >IE I am _still_ waiting for someone to post a problem description (real-word >problem) that is unbounded in any way. To date, no one has. Which means all >real-world problems are O(1) and that definition is _still_ worthless and >pointless. > >Big-Oh is _still_ a conceptual way to predict program run-time as the input >is increased in some way. I posted a direct quote from one theory book >yesterday. I can post others that make the same statement... > >In "theory" this "asymptotic behavior" might make sense. In practical terms, >it does not, and all the complexity analysis of algorithms, for any real-world >algorithm you name, must be of O(1) which is nonsense to those of us that are >working on algorithms. Some algorithms sort in O(n*n), some in O(n*log n). You say the difference is unimportant?
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