Talk:Knuth's Algorithm X: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:21, 14 January 2006

Revision as of 07:56, 15 January 2006

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*'''Comment''' I am not sure why "Algorithm" should be capitalised, I'd rather see it moved to [[Knuth's algorithm X]]. Articles tend not to have a capitalised "algorithm" as shown by [http://www.google.com/search?q=site:en.wikipedia.org+algorithm this search]. --[[User:Lox|Lox]] ([[User talk:Lox|t]],[[Special:Contributions/Lox|c]]) 14:21, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

*'''Reply''' Lox: You make a good point, and thank you for checking. I was initially taken aback by capitalizing "Algorithm" but not "x". Similarly, your proposal to not capitalize "algorithm" but to capitalize the "X" similarly strikes me as inconsistent. As far as I know, the "X" is always capitalized in the literature when someone refers to "Algorithm X". Indeed, the phrase "Algorithm X" often appears without naming Knuth directly. In this sense, "Algorithm X" is the proper name of a specific algorithm, which is a strong reason for capitalizing this proper name. In constrast, some of the terms your search revealed are general: "Sorting algorithm", "Search algorithm", etc. I understand why "algorithm" isn't capitalized in these cases, consistent with standard Wiki naming conventions. Other terms are algorithm's named after particular people: "Dijkstra's algorithm", "Prim's algorithm", "Euclidean algorithm", etc. These latter terms lose meaning if you remove the name: "Eucleadian algorithm" refers to a specific algorithm (for finding the greatest common divisor of two integers), but "algorithm" without "Euclidean" refers to nothing in particular. Thus the proper name of the person should be capitalized, but whether or not to capitalize "algorithm" is a matter of taste and convention. Wiki convention is to leave "algorithm" uncapitalized. In contrast, "Algorithm X" does refer to a specific algorithm, whether or not Knuth's name is mentioned. In summary, I see "Algorithm X" as a proper name, hence to be capitalized. [[User:Rob Zako|Rob Zako]] 07:56, 15 January 2006 (UTC)