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From: dan@it.uq.edu.au (Dan Johnston D.B.)
Subject: Re: Help B* and B+ Trees
Date: 1998/05/17
Message-ID: <6jltro$60k$1@miso.it.uq.edu.au>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 353966174
References: <6je5il$ecf$1@news.iinet.net.au> <355B0B39.7A3673D5@earthling.net>
 <dewar.895192005@merv> <355D5DF7.1451@online.no>
Organization: Department of Computer science and Electrical Engineering
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1998-05-17T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


In <355D5DF7.1451@online.no> "Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei@online.no> writes:

>Robert Dewar wrote: 
>> This is quite unfair to Don, he explains algorithms in a high level
>> manner using abstract pseudo-code. MIX is only used in low level analysis
>> of actual performance on a typical machine, i.e. to get a feel for the
>> constants involved and go from O(n**2) to C*n**2, you need a concrete
>> machine!

>Not really. Any computer will suffice. If he had used Pascal like he did
>with TeX and Metafont (I would of course prefer Ada 95) it would be
>simple for any user to discover the differences. Pascal compilers are
>widely available and it would be simple for interested parties to type
>in the examples and analyze the results.

Pascal did not exist in 1967 when Knuth published Vol 1 Fundamental
Algorithms and even Vol 3 Searching and Sorting was published in the
same year 1973 as the Pascal Revised Report.  Knuth's language options
would have been pretty limited when he started these classic works.
          dan.     Dan Johnston,     dan@csee.uq.edu.au