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Re:Theory vs Practice: Making algorithms claimed 'optimal', ... by RiderOfGiraffes on Sunday July 11, 2010 @04:02AM (#1505192)
I think this is pretty much identical to the subject being discussed here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1426211

There's a lot of discussion there already, and it might be worth reading it before commenting here and repeating all the arguments.

ADDED IN EDIT: Having gone and taken my own advice (for a change 8-) I prefer the other article because the diagrams are larger and in-line.

Re:Theory vs Practice: Making algorithms claimed 'optimal', ... by jrockway on Sunday July 11, 2010 @05:55AM (#1505288)
It's the same article by the same author, of course. One is a preprint and the other is from this month's CACM.