Algorithmic Complexity Made Simple

G. Wade Johnson started by talking about premature optimization and profiling to recognize hotspots. From there, he explores the idea that algorithm change is more useful than micro-optimizations. He introduced major orders of complexity.

Next, we did some example tests of some simple code to recognize the order of complexity. The audience seemed to really enjoy this exercise. People were also surprised by some of the results.

This presentation is by no mean equivalent to a computer science class on the subject. The idea presented was that even a little bit of understanding of algorithmic complexity, can be helpful in making code trade-offs.

Materials for the presentation are available:

• Slides
• benchmark code for hash lookup example
• Fibonacci sequence code examples

We had 7 people attending this month. As always, we'd like to thank cPanel, Inc. for providing the meeting space and food for the group.