Abstract
IN INTRODUCTORY computer programming courses we learn that computers are used to execute algorithms for the solution of problems. Actually, the problems we want to solve by computer may have quite varying characteristics. In general, we are able to express our problem in terms of some relation P⊆ I × S, where I is the set of problem instances and S is the set of problem solutions. As an alternative view, we can also consider a predicate p(x,y) which is true if and only if (x,y) ∈ P. If we want to analyze the properties of the computations to be performed, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the sets I, S and of the relation P (or of the predicate p) more closely.
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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ausiello, G., Marchetti-Spaccamela, A., Crescenzi, P., Gambosi, G., Protasi, M., Kann, V. (1999). The Complexity of Optimization Problems. In: Complexity and Approximation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58412-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58412-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-63581-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-58412-1
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