Talk:Knuth's Algorithm X

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the debate was move. —Nightstallion (?) 08:18, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

Knuths Algorithm x → Knuth's Algorithm X – {improper capitalization & punctuation} copied from the entry on the WP:RM page

[edit] Voting

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your vote with ~~~~

• Support as per my comment-reply-comment below! --Lox (t,c) 10:13, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

Add any additional comments

• 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 this search. --Lox (t,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. --Rob Zako 07:56, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

  Thanks for taking the time to reply! I certainly do not oppose the change in capitalisation of "x", it is fairly obvious that it should be "X". As for what you say about "algorithm", I agree that a reference to "Algorithm X" would relate to Knuth's work and on that basis, it seems only correct to capitalise "Algorithm". I support the move, as per my vote! --Lox (t,c) 10:17, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

• Comment: This new article is part of the rewrite of the Dancing Links page, which is blatantly incorrect. --Eneg 15:39, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
• Reply: Eneg: Could you please explain your concerns with the Dancing Links page? --Rob Zako 08:03, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
• Reply: Rob Zako: That DL article was pretty bad before I rewrote it. If you're interested, just check the history. Perhaps the most notable shortcoming with that article beforehand was that it didn't discuss dancing links. User:Eneg 23:12, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.