NIST-DaDS

The NIST has an RFC of sorts for help on the Dictionary of Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problems.

Quoting We need help in state machines, combinatorics, parallel and randomized algorithms, heuristics, and quantum computing. I have spent a few hours digging through the site, and have even found one contribution that was somewhat attributed to Abigail. But there were only a few perl implementations to be found. I think this is an area where perl could really show it's true worth.

NIST - The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Update: Athough "quantum computing" is a portion of the site, it doesn't come close to defining the scope of this site or its purpose. Here's a link to the categorized listings, most of which seem to involve sorting string data.

Comment on NIST-DaDS

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: NIST-DaDS by deprecated (Priest) on Nov 08, 2001 at 19:52 UTC
Outside of Quantum::Superpositions, I'm not sure what perl could offer on Quantum computing. I know perl can do heuristics since I've written several programs exploring heuristics as it applies to natural language parsing. <!- despite what tilly may think, im not a fucking idiot... --> We're also no stranger to algorithms such as the Sieve of Eratosthenes (see This golf as just one example). I and a couple other users actually proposed perl 'sprints' at one point, in which we would compete for the most efficient algorithm. (tilly made the rather correct point that such competition was futile given the range of hardware available). Mastering Algorithms with Perl also has some complex algorithms, including the radix sort (which I find to be pretty farkin cool). Perl does not really excel at parallel computing, and certainly not in the sense that NIST is looking for. Although you may want to look into POE. While I love perl, we need to keep in mind that sometimes there is a better tool for a particular job. In the case of algorithmic efficiency, I'm inclined to look to C rather than perl (although risacher has some interesting comments to make about Java and bubble sort if you care to ask). grains of salt and my two cents available upon request. brother dep. -- Laziness, Impatience, Hubris, and Generosity.	[reply]
Re: NIST-DaDS by drinkd (Pilgrim) on Nov 09, 2001 at 18:53 UTC
I agree totaly with Zecho. Its not good for Perl to have all of the algorithm snippets easily available on the web be written in C and Pascal. I have often scoured the web looking for Perl snippets of a given algorithm with all of the fancy error checking and optimizations that good Perl programers are good at that you don't get if you just transliterate the C or Pascal, usually to no avail. Even very common algorithms like general sorts and "towers-of-hanoi"-type snippits can be powerful tools for teaching Perl. I wonder how many of the algorithms listed at the NIST page above actually have existing code on PM that could be linked to. . . . . drinkd	[reply]