Talk:Dynamic programming

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Example

I (FvdP 21:51 Oct 22, 2002 (UTC)) had begun an example but do not feel the motivation to finish it cleanly right now (and perhaps not in the immediate future either). Here is it if anyone wants to complete it::

Suppose that we have to compute the product of n matrices A₁.A₂. ... .A_n, and we want to minimize the total number of operations by executing the matrix products in the best possible order.

The product of two matrices of size i × j and j × k

........

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This example is published in Cormen's Introduction to Algorithms textbook. Will we run into copyright issues by putting it here?

Absolutely not! Ideas cannot be copyrighted, only a particular way of expressing those ideas. CLRS itself based this section on various papers. In other words, we can write an explanation of the problem and its solution in our own words, but should be careful not to copy text or even the precise presentation of the problem. Derrick Coetzee 20:09, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Confusion

The first paragraph of the second part and the article on algorithms states that dynamic programming is a bottom-up approach, but later this article says dynamic programming may use bottom-up or top-down approaches. --zeno 11:46, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I've revised that section. It was very vague and somewhat incorrect. I hope there's less confusion now. Derrick Coetzee 20:18, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Mild correction of pseudocode.

The article's pseudocode was inconsistent. At times, it used a Python-like indenting to represent the code structure. But it also included brackets at times. I have added brackets so that the pseudocode follows a C-like syntax: if the result of a loop, conditional, or whatnot is longer than one line, it is surrounded by brackets.

A more aggressive editor might prefer that no brackets be used. I don't know whether a bracket-less pseudocode would be clearer, but any consistent use of brackets would be clearer than what was there. (Would always using brackets be clearer -- for people who use a text-to-speech synthesizer, for example -- or would it just put in too much punctuation?) Chip Unicorn

In pseudocode I like to prefer indentation to braces where it's not unclear, to avoid eye-clutter, but I don't disagree with your changes - it's still sparse enough to be readable. Deco 01:10, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I tried it without braces, and it looks visually clearer. If Wikipedia gets complaints that this is un-understandable by some group. we can put in some way to distinguish the levels. Chip Unicorn 12:41, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Just to clarify, are there any set Wikipedia standards on formatting pseudocode? Neilc314 (talk) 04:00, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Weirdness

The page says "i dont know" in those terms, which is not only weirdly misplaced, but also improperly formatted. Someone check.

Smith-Waterman Algorithm

I don't see any mention of the Smith-Waterman algorithm, which is a dynamic programming algorithm just like the Needleman-Wunsch. Would it be appropriate to add that one as well? --scskowron 13:57 , 13 December 2006 (UTC)

I know this is an old post, but this problem has been resolved and there is now a mention of the Smith Waterman algorithm in the Sequence Alignment section. Neilc314 (talk) 03:58, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Misplaced section

The part following "The steps for using dynamic program goes as follows:" is out of place. Out of nowhere the article starts using terms like 'gap penalties' and 'sequence alignment.' Seems like this was copied from some article on a specific application, such as protien sequencing. Anon, Wed Jul 11 14:11:43 EDT 2007

too many examples

This is not a textbook. One good example would suffice. Even worse, many of them are just too long (and boring). Put them in wikibooks. Unfortunately, any attempt to fix this article would be blocked as "vandalism". Way to go, Wikipedia!