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Hmm, can you give an example of a typical "learning CS" level algorithm that you can't implement in, say, JavaScript?
by mistercow 14y ago
Hmm, can you give an example of a typical "learning CS" level algorithm that you can't implement in, say, JavaScript?
- z92 14y agoB-Tree indexes in JavaScript
- mistercow 14y agoGoogling around, I see a number of implementations. What's wrong with them, and why do you feel this is impossible? (And hint: it's guaranteed not to be impossible since JS is Turing complete)
- killahpriest 14y agoNot an algorithm, but used in many. Pointers.
- mistercow 14y agoEmulating pointers in JS is pretty easy; you just wrap the values in objects or arrays.
- javert 14y agoYou could probably implement any of them in JavaScript, but it would be sort of silly, because the actual runtime complexity and memory usage aren't really going to be close to what they "should be" due to the interpreter. I haven't given it a lot of thought, but I doubt it makes sense to implement "textbook" algorithms and data structures without pointers.
- mistercow 14y agoAs I said in another thread, you can get the same functionality as pointers by using arrays or objects, which are always passed around by reference. You're right that this is an inefficient way to implement those algorithms, but I disagree that that makes it silly. The purpose of writing those algorithms is to learn how they work, not to use them in practice. Generally, if you're using them in practice, you shouldn't be rolling your own in the first place.