Talk:Timeline of algorithms

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An algorithm is a procedure that solves a fundamental (and simply formulated) problem, for exemple sorting an array of integers or computing Voronoi cells from a set of points. A complex piece of software, an encoding or a format is not an algorithm.

For exemple cyphers do not belong on this list. I accept things like Diffie-Hellman or RSA, but certainly not MD5, RC4, AES, etc... Those are applications, not algorithms. That's like saying JPEG is an algorithm. It is not, but the way you compute the DCT is.

Likewise an encoding is not an algorithm. The procedure which does the encoding is however, but the two shouldn't be confused. That's why I wouldn't put things like Hamming codes, Gray codes, Reed-Solomon and the likes. The trick itself is interesting, but the encoding procedure is not notable. User:tonigonenstein

should add some important geometrical constructs such as besecting an angle, calculating the golden ratio, finding the centre of a polygon


I added "wait-free synchronization" to the list. I didn't even know it was possible until 2004. I stuck it at 1991, since that's the earliest paper I've seen so far:

Wait-Free Synchronization by Maurice Herlihy (1993) http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/herlihy93waitfree.html (Is this the same as "Wait-Free Synchronization" by Maurice Herlihy (1991) _ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems_ January 1991 ? ) http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WaitFreeSynchronization

If anyone knows an earlier reference, please tell me and/or fix the article and drop a reference here. -- DavidCary 05:21, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

Other algorithms to add:

  • Bezier spline (?)
  • Do neural networks have a place here ?
  • The neural network back-propagation algorithm
  • Public-key encryption
  • Hamming codes
  • Reed-Solomon encoding (used by NASA to communicate with deep space probes; used by every audio CD player)
  • ...
  • ...

-- DavidCary 03:23, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Turbo Codes too! - Used by NASA on more recent probes, and have stimulated research into repetitive/recursive decoding). Nice example of recent ground-breaking work. Mat-C 22:26, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Meta Heuristics in the Wild

Couldn't some common meta heuristics like genetic algorithms, swarm intelligence, and ant colony optimization be said to exist from the first eukaryotes, the Cambrian explosion, and the first ants, for example? Certainly if these weren't in operation, the problem of "how to create an algorithm timeline page" wouldn't have been solved, because we wouldn't be here to solve it. --Dbabbitt 20:37, 19 December 2005 (UTC)


Is there some reason why Alan Turing is omitted from the time-line article (1930s)? von Neumann is mentioned, why not Turing? pbgrose, 11 June 2006