5 ms·

Ancient Babylonian Algorithms

• czbond 3y ago
  Ancient Babylonian Leetcode?
• xylol 3y ago
  https://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS1001/extension/ancient-babylonian-algorithms.pdf https://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS1001/extension/an... Link to pdf
• svat 3y ago
  (1972), reprinted as Chapter 11 of Selected Papers on Computer Science (https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cs.html https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cs.html) [Changes are usually minor but in this case there's an erratum published in 1976, https://doi.org/10.1145/800127.804066 https://doi.org/10.1145/800127.804066 p 108.] Fun fact: to write this paper, Knuth actually learned ancient Akkadian and Sumerian (at least enough to look up dictionaries): > Most of the Babylonian mathematical tablets have never been translated into English. The translations above have been made by comparing the German of [3, 4, 5] with the French [8]; but these two versions actually differ in many details, so the Akkadian and Sumerian vocabularies published in [4, 8, 6] have been consulted in an attempt to give an accurate rendition.
• ethanpil 3y ago
  I always appreciated "This is the procedure." Great syntax to signify the endpoint of the algo... :) Also see: https://www.artsy.net/article/ruse-laboratories-this-is-the-procedure https://www.artsy.net/article/ruse-laboratories-this-is-the-...
  • jrd259 3y ago
    "This is the way", perhaps?
    • diogenes4 3y ago
      Seems more daoist than related to enumerating steps of an algorithm.
• wintermutestwin 3y ago
  Be careful with these - there could be a mind virus (nam shub) in there! (Snow Crash reference)