6 ms·
Visualizing Algorithms (2014)
- mrv_asura 4y agoIt gets more interesting the further you read! Superb work by the author.
- derbOac 4y agoIt's beautiful but in my opinion a perfect example of why a table of contents or something similar (not remembering the internet equivalent term atm) is important.
- a_c 4y agoCan we add 2014 to the title? For those unaware, Mike created https://observablehq.com/ https://observablehq.com/ and d3.js
- sktrdie 4y agoThe fact that this is 8 years old makes it even more impressive.
- adeptima 4y agoRock star level performance in visualization and developer experience
- O__________O 4y agoPrior HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14806488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14806488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7949995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7949995 — and the author’s HN posts/comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mbostock https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mbostock
- min_tian 4y agoThere is a how-reverse-image-search-works visualization. It explains how ivf_flat in faiss finds the approximate images in a huge amount of vectors. https://zilliz.com/blog/Visualize-Reverse-Image-Search-with-Feder https://zilliz.com/blog/Visualize-Reverse-Image-Search-with-...
- walton_simons 4y agoSpeaking as a self-taught "programmer" who never got far beyond the rudiments (basic scripting and automation is about as far as I go), I find stuff like this utterly mindblowing. I'm aware that sorting and maze generation algorithms exist of course, but it's magic to me. I don't understand them at all, and seeing them visualised like this, in such an appealing way, is incredible.
- guessmyname 4y agoFor what is worth, programmers who went through college and/or university didn’t learn this stuff there, so technically speaking we are all self-taught. Search about Depth-First Search and Breadth-First Search algorithms, they are very short and easy to understand. You will be able to build and solve your own mazes in no time.
- lqet 4y agoWait, are you saying that computer scientists don't learn about spanning trees, DFS, BFS, or sorting at university?
- bigDinosaur 4y agoI assume they mean the methods and justifications behind the visualisations, since DFS etc. are absolutely taught everywhere.
- kragen 4y agoCramming the night before an exam isn't the same thing as learning. It doesn't change who you are and the way you see the world. It doesn't give you new abilities you can use for the rest of your life.
- JoshCole 4y agoCramming the night before an exam isn't the same thing as teaching either. If we need to accept that teaching is always the outcome of the worst performing learners it would follow that schools don't teach children to read. After all, illiterate people exist. That some teaching outcomes exist which are contrary to the curriculums goals doesn't mean that curriculums don't exist. There are billions of us and learning outcomes are varied in part because teachers vary in skill. With so many chances and plenty of bad teachers, it is inevitable that some small fraction of the population gain the perception that trees aren't taught in CS programs even though they almost always are.
- shanghaikid 4y agoobservablehq.com is awesome. We use it to build our feder example: https://observablehq.com/@min-tian/feder https://observablehq.com/@min-tian/feder , If you want to understand vector embeddings, give it a try https://github.com/zilliztech/feder https://github.com/zilliztech/feder
- MauranKilom 4y agoFor sampling points on a plane (or other geometries), there is an even better algorithm: http://extremelearning.com.au/unreasonable-effectiveness-of-quasirandom-sequences/ http://extremelearning.com.au/unreasonable-effectiveness-of-... (Yes, no https - I promise the visualizations are worth it!)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- usrbinbash 4y agoIn an ideal world, this is how algorithms and datastructures are taught. Beautiful work.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- humourl3ss 4y agoso cool
- antiRadical 4y ago
- cyral 4y agoI had a professor in college who made visualizations like this in PowerPoint, with each slide being a frame. He would then zoom through them and it would animate how various algorithms worked. Like this article, it was really amazing for understanding how they worked. I wish more courses offered visualizations like this, they make such a huge difference.
- barnacled 4y agoInteresting this came out just as I rejigged and updated a visualisation tool I made a decade ago (!) which shows sorting algorithms in a really pretty rainbow colour form. I think it gives a good insight into how these work. https://ljs.io/rainbow/ https://ljs.io/rainbow/
- smusamashah 4y agoPlugging in my tool where you can plug and vis your own sorting algorithm. https://xosh.org/VisualizingSorts/sorting.html https://xosh.org/VisualizingSorts/sorting.html
- markrazini8 4y ago