Efficiency AND Readability

[David S. Bakin]

In article <1859 at garth.UUCP>, smryan at garth (Steven Ryan) writes:
>>                                                  There is also debate
>>about whether WEB is really worthwhile; a couple of years ago in the
>>Programming Pearls column in CACM, Knuth contributed a WEB example
>>which Doug McIlroy really tore apart.
>
>He attacked the algorithm, not so much the presentation.

I don't think he attacked the algorithm -- the algorithm was new and totally
elegant.  But in the context of the particular problem it was like going after
a fly with a cannon.  But Bentley (the column editor) defended it on the 
grounds that it was, after all, an example, the problem was simple so the
solution could be published in a monthly column, but a problem that simple
(solved with a Unix 1-liner) wouldn't be a good exposition of WEB.  -- Dave
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Dave Bakin				    (408) 496-3600
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