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"Dynamic programming" is such a dumb name for what it is and I hope that we can all eventually stop calling it that.

WORLD_ENDS_SOON 6y ago
The history behind the term is pretty interesting to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History The original research on the subject was published in engineering / optimization as opposed to computer science, and the term "programming" was used differently there ("linear programming" and "quadratic programming" for example). Now we think of it not as an optimization problem but as an algorithm design technique, but the name still stuck around.
waterhouse 6y ago
Emphatically agreed. For those not aware, the person who chose the name (for what were originally called "multistage decision processes", which is far more descriptive) says he chose "dynamic" in significant part because it sounded impressive to a hard-nosed boss: "... It also has a very interesting property as an adjective, and that is it's impossible to use the word dynamic in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It's impossible. Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to. So I used it as an umbrella for my activities." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History Also, by the way, to the extent that "dynamic programming" has a definition (the words have little to do with what it means, so it's hard to fix the term to a specific definition), it generally refers to a superset of memoization. So memoization is the more specific term, and should be preferred. I think we may be able to help kill usage of the term by observing that its initialization, DP, which some people are fond of using, has a much more graphic alternate meaning. Then modern puritanism may make people reluctant to say it anymore.

The history behind the term is pretty interesting to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History The original research on the subject was published in engineering / optimization as opposed to computer science, and the term "programming" was used differently there ("linear programming" and "quadratic programming" for example). Now we think of it not as an optimization problem but as an algorithm design technique, but the name still stuck around.

waterhouse 6y ago

Emphatically agreed. For those not aware, the person who chose the name (for what were originally called "multistage decision processes", which is far more descriptive) says he chose "dynamic" in significant part because it sounded impressive to a hard-nosed boss: "... It also has a very interesting property as an adjective, and that is it's impossible to use the word dynamic in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It's impossible. Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to. So I used it as an umbrella for my activities." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_programming#History Also, by the way, to the extent that "dynamic programming" has a definition (the words have little to do with what it means, so it's hard to fix the term to a specific definition), it generally refers to a superset of memoization. So memoization is the more specific term, and should be preferred. I think we may be able to help kill usage of the term by observing that its initialization, DP, which some people are fond of using, has a much more graphic alternate meaning. Then modern puritanism may make people reluctant to say it anymore.