Re:C++ Programming Questions to Ask on Interview (2017)
by ajross on Friday October 19, 2018 @12:36PM
(#18257900)
Why would one even need such a term? The difference is the direction of the pointy end in the comparison operator...
Re:C++ Programming Questions to Ask on Interview (2017)
by justin66 on Friday October 19, 2018 @01:07PM
(#18258162)
> Why would one even need such a term?
Like any word, it's shorthand for a longer set of words.
> The difference is the direction of the pointy end in the comparison operator...
That's not descriptive of what the thing is, that's descriptive of how one part of it will be implemented.
I get that you don't think it is important, but I am surprised that you are acting defensive about the fact that it's a term practitioners ordinarily use. It's the first thing someone who looks up a binary heap is likely to see in Wikipedia, captioning the top two illustrations in that article. It's not just Stanford-cult algorithmic knowledge.
Out of curiosity, what terminology would you use to distinguish between a heap that offers up the lowest value first and one that offers the highest value first?