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Re: WWW Page of Team PLClub (Re: ICFP programming contest: results)
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| Date: | -- (:) |
| From: | John Max Skaller <skaller@o...> |
| Subject: | Re: WWW Page of Team PLClub (Re: ICFP programming contest: results) |
Pierre Weis wrote: > the body of f. This operation is trivial if you use a conventional > beta reducer, but it is surprisingly difficult if you use De Bruijn > indices. Just out of curiousity, what do you mean by a 'difficult' algorithm? To explain my question in slightly more depth: given some fixed problems with known algorithms, all these algorithms, in the first instance, have equal 'difficulty', namely, 'trivial': if the algorithm is known, it can be implemented. (In general, coding a known algorithm is so easy compared with other programming tasks that I would classify coding by how laborious it is: the only 'difficulty' involved is staying awake long enough to finish the job :-) It is sometimes difficult to _find_ an algorithm for a problem, and one may say that some algorithms are 'inflexible' in the sense that small variations in the problem make finding a solution by considering the 'original' algorithm difficult. It may also be hard to tranform a correct algorithm into a more efficient version. Also, it is clear that some algorithms are difficult to understand. And, some algorithms, coded incorrectly, may be difficult to debug. -- John (Max) Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au 10/1 Toxteth Rd Glebe NSW 2037 Australia voice: 61-2-9660-0850 checkout Vyper http://Vyper.sourceforge.net download Interscript http://Interscript.sourceforge.net