CS252 Algorithms
Wednesday, 16 November 2022

+ Questions?

+ Habits for theoretical work
- Develop intuitive understanding of an algorithm
    (concrete examples, play around with edge
     cases, be able to execute the algorithm
     by hand, etc.)

- Study the correctness proof. Memorize the proof. Poke
    the proof with a stick (is there a better
    way? is this persuasive? what hypotheses
    does this statement depend on? etc.)

- Compress the memorized proof.
    (e.g. Kruskal generates an MST by starting
     with N connected components and connecting
     two components per iteration as cheaply as possible;
     couldn't get cheaper (by contradition))

- Do the same stuff with the complexity analysis.

- Where does a particular result fit within the
    structure of well-known theorems, lemmas, etc.?

- What corollaries spin right out of this theorem?

- What happens to the conclusion if I eliminate a
    hypothesis? What happens if I strengthen the
    hypothesis?

- Play with the ideas!


+ Habits for practical work
- Same as above, as far as you can.

- Keep your eyes peeled for unnecessary N^2 behavior
    (example from CS257)

- Read about your programming languages' behavior

- Read about a new algorithm every month


+ Python