Just a note about the name of the algorithm: Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming indeed uses letters for algorithms, but the intended convention is that, fo

Just a note about the name of the algorithm: Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming indeed uses letters for algorithms, but the intended convention is that, for example, this algorithm be called "Algorithm 4.3.1D" (that's the name used in "Appendix C — Index to Algorithms and Theorems"). From page 2 of Volume 1 of TAOCP: > The format above illustrates the style in which all of the algorithms throughout this book will be presented. Each algorithm we consider has been given an identifying letter (E in the preceding example), and the steps of the algorithm are identified by this letter followed by a number (E1, E2, E3). The chapters are divided into numbered sections; within a section the algorithms are designated by letter only, but when algorithms are referred to in other sections, the appropriate section number is attached. For example, we are now in Section 1.1; within this section Euclid’s algorithm is called Algorithm E, while in later sections it is referred to as Algorithm 1.1E. In the case of this particular "Algorithm D", the letter "D" is chosen probably because it's an algorithm for "Division of nonnegative integers" (it follows algorithms "A", "S" and "M" for you-can-guess-what); indeed the same volume also has another "Algorithm D (Factoring with sieves)" (=Algorithm 4.5.4D), and an "Algorithm D (Division of polynomials over a field)" (=Algorithm 4.6.1D). I think that, as several times in the same section it's referred to simply as "Algorithm D" (for example), this convention is not very obvious unless one has looked at either the second page of the first volume, or the appendix. Or I guess within a certain field a particular section of TAOCP is implicit, so it's clear from context.