O-notation considered harmful (use Analytic Combinatorics instead)

Re:O-notation considered harmful (use Analytic Combinatorics... by danek on Sunday February 10, 2013 @06:39PM (#5198472)

What is the origin of these articles that take the form "X Considered Harmful"?

What's wrong with adding the word "is" between "X" and "considered"?

Who is doing the considering?

What is X harmful towards?

Can anyone explain why this is a thing?

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Re:O-notation considered harmful (use Analytic Combinatorics... by shadowfiend on Sunday February 10, 2013 @06:45PM (#5198495)

This is a thing because it is an allusion to Edsger Dijkstra's letter “Go To Statement Considered Harmful”. See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Considered_harmful . Evidently it predates that letter, but its pervasion in computing blog posts and such is probably due to the relation to Dijkstra's article/letter.

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Re:O-notation considered harmful (use Analytic Combinatorics... by spacemanaki on Sunday February 10, 2013 @06:43PM (#5198486)

Its origins are in an essay by Dijkstra from 1968 called "Go To Statement Considered Harmful"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Considered_harmful

Plus it's a quick way to write a pithy link-bait title (not commenting on the OP, but in general)

edit Actually according to Wikipedia Dijkstra's original title was different, and Niklaus Wirth changed it. I didn't know that, funny little bit of history.

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