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Questions tagged [theory]

Programming-language-agnostic Questions that focus on the theoretical aspects rather than the actual implementations.

The following tags exists that deal with a specific subsets of theoretical aspects of programming.

  • Compiler-Theory
  • Computation-Theory
  • Game-Theory
  • Graph-Theory
  • Language-Theory
  • Number-theory
  • Probability-Theory
  • Set-Theory
1710 questions
784
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23 answers

What is a lambda (function)?

For a person without a comp-sci background, what is a lambda in the world of Computer Science?
Brian Warshaw
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549
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15 answers

What is Turing Complete?

What does the expression "Turing Complete" mean? Can you give a simple explanation, without going into too many theoretical details?
dlinsin
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548
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15 answers

Difference Between Cohesion and Coupling

What is the difference between cohesion and coupling? How can coupling and cohesion lead to either good or poor software design? What are some examples that outline the difference between the two, and their impact on overall code quality?
JavaUser
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459
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14 answers

What is an NP-complete in computer science?

What is an NP-complete problem? Why is it such an important topic in computer science?
Claudiu
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415
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56 answers

Storing Images in DB - Yea or Nay?

So I'm using an app that stores images heavily in the DB. What's your outlook on this? I'm more of a type to store the location in the filesystem, than store it directly in the DB. What do you think are the pros/cons?
James Hall
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414
votes
18 answers

What is a Y-combinator?

A Y-combinator is a computer science concept from the “functional” side of things. Most programmers don't know much at all about combinators, if they've even heard about them. What is a Y-combinator? How do combinators work? What are they good…
Chris Ammerman
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388
votes
19 answers

Way to go from recursion to iteration

I've used recursion quite a lot on my many years of programming to solve simple problems, but I'm fully aware that sometimes you need iteration due to memory/speed problems. So, sometime in the very far past I went to try and find if there existed…
Gustavo Carreno
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347
votes
32 answers

Are there any O(1/n) algorithms?

Are there any O(1/n) algorithms? Or anything else which is less than O(1)?
Shalmanese
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311
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25 answers

Big-O for Eight Year Olds?

I'm asking more about what this means to my code. I understand the concepts mathematically, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around what they mean conceptually. For example, if one were to perform an O(1) operation on a data structure, I…
Jason Baker
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302
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15 answers

What is referential transparency?

What does the term referential transparency mean? I've heard it described as "it means you can replace equals with equals" but this seems like an inadequate explanation.
Claudiu
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249
votes
6 answers

What's "P=NP?", and why is it such a famous question?

The question of whether P=NP is perhaps the most famous in all of Computer Science. What does it mean? And why is it so interesting? Oh, and for extra credit, please post a proof of the statement's truth or falsehood. :)
raldi
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237
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15 answers

What is the point of interfaces in PHP?

Interfaces allow you to create code which defines the methods of classes that implement it. You cannot however add any code to those methods. Abstract classes allow you to do the same thing, along with adding code to the method. Now if you can…
mk.
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193
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12 answers

What good are SQL Server schemas?

I'm no beginner to using SQL databases, and in particular SQL Server. However, I've been primarily a SQL 2000 guy and I've always been confused by schemas in 2005+. Yes, I know the basic definition of a schema, but what are they really used for in…
Erik Funkenbusch
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185
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4 answers

Simple basic explanation of a Distributed Hash Table (DHT)

Could any one give an explanation on how a DHT works? Nothing too heavy, just the basics.
Gustavo Carreno
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156
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9 answers

How to write a simple database engine

I am interested in learning how a database engine works (i.e. the internals of it). I know most of the basic data structures taught in CS (trees, hash tables, lists, etc.) as well as a pretty good understanding of compiler theory (and have…
a_m0d
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