HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mcgregor@atherton.com (Scott L. McGregor)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: cost of poor usability metrics
Date: 10 Apr 92 16:50:58 GMT
Reply-To: mcgregor@atherton.com

In article <4826@zaphod.UUCP> bobd@zaphod.UUCP (Bob Dalgleish) writes:

> Now, to get back to your model, are you enquiring about the 20% of the
> entire system which is "feature" oriented, or about the whole system?

I agree with Bob's breakdown of systems into features, functions, foundations,  
and fault-protection.  I believe what I am talking about still applies to the  
whole system.  It may be true that a foundation or function aspect, such as a  
libc function, may have very little perceived value to an end user.   
Nevertheless, if the way that features are able to accomplish the goals that  
the users use is to use code which calls libc, then it is obviously useful to  
the end user in my measurements since this code will be accessed when the  
useful feature is accessed.

However, if you write foundation or function code that is never accessed by any  
feature code, then I suspect this is a noneconomical result.  The most obvious  
example is truly "dead" code, code that you developed, paid for, and is in the  
sources, but is not reachable by any paths.

What I am suggesting is that we take one step further, and evaluate criticly  
our investment in code that is theoretically reachable, but which in practice  
is never, or at least rarely used.  I think that foundation or function code  
you have written that is rarely used by feature level code should be looked at  
equally as critically as the feature code that is unused.  If you write  
fucntion or foundation code, perhaps there are aspects about your function  
naming, library location, or documentation which is inhibiting use by more  
feature writers, if so, this is uneconomic, and worth some attention.

Fault coverage is an interesting case.  In the abstract, I do think that some  
of the same principles apply--it is not economical to write code which tests  
whether the computer it is running on is off at the moment--because such a  
situation cannot happen. There are also less ludicrous, but also uneconomic  
situation: someone might write a routine for analyzing collisions--if the  
purpose of this is for automobile safety analysis, fault checking of certain  
relativistic conditions--not impossible, but extremely unlikely, is probably  
uneconomic. 

Checking whether a disk drive is off may be unlikely but more reasonable.  Code  
coverage of fault code during usability tests might be expected to be low, but  
this does not mean that the fault code is useless. You might want to run  
special fault testing to find out how much that code is excercised.

--
Scott L. McGregor                               mcgregor@atherton.com
Atherton Technology                             fax: 408-734-1333
1333 Bordeaux Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: marty@beta.lanl.gov (Martin G. Halvorson)
Subject: Re: On-screen fonts...
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 21:52:49 GMT

In article <=zztwx=@rpi.edu> tevonp@aix.rpi.edu (Peter Kaine Tevonian) writes:

>effectiveness of specific on-screen fonts, or papers claiming that fonts 
>do not affect reading performance significantly.  Any suggestions or 

There is one aspect of most fonts that effects reading performance.  This
aspect is most pronounced in people suffering from presbyopia (which is 
sometimes mistakenly confused with hyperopia).

The aspect in question is size.  It seems to me that most fonts are
designed so that as many characters as possible can be present on the
screen at the same time.

But just wait; some time in the future you to will find your arms
getting shorter as the ravages of presbyopia take it's toll.

Peace

			Marty
From: rfpfeifl@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Ron Pfeifle)
Subject: optical mice
Organization: Computer Graphics Laboratory, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 15:23:27 GMT

Does anyone know of an optical mouse manufacturer in North America (telephone
number)?  I already know that Mouse Systems makes them.  Know of anyone else?
(please e-mail to rfpfeifle@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca).

Thanks
Ron
From: bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Bradley K. Sherman)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Looking for Published Flowcharts
Date: 9 Apr 92 23:06:47 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.s2im7INN5be
Organization: Decisions Anonymous
NNTP-Posting-Host: alfa.berkeley.edu

In article <DOUG.92Apr9171052@clarity.princeton.edu> doug@clarity.Princeton.EDU (Douglas Merrill) writes:
>There was a paper in the _Proceedings of the fourth workshop on
>Empirical Studies of Programmers_ that talked about the use of
>diagrams and flowcharts as program documentation tools.

Don't have that collection,  but I've always wanted to say
this (but was afraid of getting drummed out of ACM): I like
flowcharts.  I figured out how flowcharts worked in Jr.
High School and still use them on the sly.

On the other hand, ER diagrams are totally incomprehensible
even when one has a legend showing the local idioms.  Data
flow diagrams likewise are perfect for cooked examples but
breakdown immediately in real life.

Lately I've had to cram a lot of Molecular Biology and somehow
unraveling the secret of life seems to entail a lot of tables
and diagrams that look suspiciously like flowcharts.

I would sum it up this way: if the flowchart will fit on
one page, then you can figure out what's going on.  If
any diagram takes more than one page, either you already
know what's going on or you'll never understand the diagram.
--------------------
    --Brad Sherman (bks@alfa.berkeley.edu)

   -> DNA----->RNA----->Protein
   |__|
    --Francis Crick
Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: sitarama@indian.cps.msu.edu (Kocherlakota Sitarama)
Subject: Processor Scheduling.
Originator: sitarama@indian.cps.msu.edu
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 13:41:41 GMT

I thought I posted this but I could not see it on the net
so posting it again.

Hello,
==================================>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
	o I am thinking of processor allocation on a 2D mesh.
	  Every user requests for a mesh and I want to cut the mesh
	  so that processor utilization is high. Any pointers for the
  	  work in this direction will be greatly helpful. I have got
	  a paper in october 1991 in parallel and Dist processing.
	  Do you know of any other heuristictic algorithms ?

       o  The problem stated above is much similar to the tiles problem
          If you have any references on the heuristics for the tiles
          problem, it will be helpful too... 

Sincerely

Sitarama K.
From: abbasi@pollux.cs.uga.edu (Sarmad Abbasi)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: P vs. NP???????
Date: 16 Apr 92 10:37:49 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Originator: abbasi@pollux

A few weeks back there was a article claiming that  P vs NP was
resolved by Motwani et al.

	Then there were a few postings saying that it was not 
resolved but assumed in the paper. Some people suggested that 
results similar to theirs were obtain earlir by others. 


	Anyway, I thouught I would wait till things clear out and
someone knows for sure what is going on.

Can someone answer the following questions.

1) Did Motwani et al. resolved P vs NP.

2) Was there an article in NY times which was posted here on the 
   net too.

3) If P vs NP is still open, how did the NYT article contain all
the statements by very well reputed people like Sipser, Blum, etc.

4) If that paper did not prove P vs NP. Was that paper any kind of
major breakthrough. 

5) What were the actual results in that paper. 


If you guys think that this news is too old to interest a lot 
of people you can mail be the answers.

Thanks 

Abbasi.
From: mayne@creat.cs.fsu.edu (William Mayne)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: P!=NP, or April fools...I don't know
Date: 13 Apr 92 17:22:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: mailer.1992Apr8.165542.5890
Reply-To: mayne@cs.fsu.edu
Organization: Florida State University Dept. of Computer Science

In article <52788@mimsy.umd.edu> peyote@umiacs.umd.edu (Gary W. Flake) writes:

>If the following is a joke, I am very sorry for wasting the bandwidth.
>I thought that it looked reputable enough to repeat...
>
>By GINA KOLATA
>c.1992 N.Y. Times News Service
>       In a discovery that overturns centuries of mathematical
>tradition, a group of graduate students and young researchers has
>discovered a way to check even the longest and most complicated
>proof by scrutinizing it in just a few spots...

I propose that a new award, the Sidd Finch Prize in Mathematics by
created and that Ms. Kolata be the first honoree.

Is there a second for the motion?

Bill Mayne
From: mueller@mount.fsu.edu (Frank Mueller)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: P?=NP remains (was: P!=NP, or April fools...I don't know)
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:50:15 GMT
Organization: Florida State University Computer Science

In article <52788@mimsy.umd.edu>, peyote@umiacs.umd.edu (Gary W. Flake) writes:
> 
> If the following is a joke, I am very sorry for wasting the bandwidth.
> I thought that it looked reputable enough to repeat. I can't vouch
> for the validity of the article, so please DO NOT SEND ME MAIL ASKING
> QUESTIONS. I WILL IGNORE THE MAIL. This was posted in our local cs
> newsgroup. That's all I know.
> 
> Gary Flake
> 

If I read the NYT article right, they only showed that trying to find
a near-optimal solution in general for any NP-complete problem is as
hard as trying to find an optimal solution for the class of NP-complete
problems. But I think the question N?=NP remains open.

Frank
mueller@cs.fsu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay)
Subject: Re: Set with O(1) initialization
Reply-To: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au
Organization: Australian National University
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 04:18:21 GMT

In article 10579@gboro.glassboro.edu, berman@gboro.glassboro.edu (Mike Berman) writes:
>Recently I posted a request for a reference for a set data
>structure with O(1) initialization and query time.  Thanks to
>all those who replied.
>
>[...]
>For those who don't have any of these books handy, here's my
>solution.
>
>Specification:
>
>Represent a subset S of [1..N], where |S| <= n.
>Support the following operations:
>
>	initialize(S)
>		precondition: true
>		postcondition: S = {}
>
>	add(S,x)
>		precondition: S initialized & (1 <= x <= N) & 
>				(x not in S) & (|S| < n)
>		postcondition: S = previous S with x added to it
>
>	inquery(S,x)
>		precondition: S initialized & (1 <= x <= N)
>		postcondition: returns true if x in S, else false
>
>	delete(S,x)
>		precondition: S initialized & x in S
>		postcondition: S = previous S with x removed
>
>Data structures:
>
>	Array A[1..N]
>	Array B[1..n]
>	integer card
>
>Implementation:
>
>	initialize(S)
>		card := 0
>
>	add(S, x)
>		card := card + 1
>		A[x] := card
>		B[card] := x
>
>	inquery(S, x)
>		return (A[x] <= card) and then B[A[x]] = x

Should be  return (1 <= A[x] <= card) and then B[A[x]] = x.

>	delete(S, x) -- exercise
>
>(note: "and then" is the "short-circuited" and from Ada, equiv. to && in C)
>
>Analysis:
>
>	space: N + n + O(1)
>	time:
>		initialize: 	O(1)
>		add:		O(1)
>		inquery:	O(1)
>
>Comment:  This can be extended using hashing to represent
>larger ranges; it can also be used with an arbitrary vector or
>matrix with minor adjustments.

One thing to note about this method is that it reads the values
of undefined variables.  In practice one can assume that the test
"1 <= A[x] <= card" will not cause problems, but in principle it
might.  For example, hardware may recognise a special value 
"undefined" which causes an exception if it is used in an operation.

Is it possible to prove that _any_ method for achieving O(1)
worst-case time for these problems has the property of reading
undefined values?

>A. Michael Berman   

Brendan.


Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: wsun@twolf3.CE.YALE.EDU (W.J. Sun)
Subject: Min-cost Complete Bipartile & Min-cost Network Flow
Organization: Yale Dept of Electrical Engineering
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 02:37:45 GMT

Hello,

I am looking for routines that could solve following two problems:

     1. Given a complete bipartile graph Kn,m.  Every edge has a 
	positve integer cost.	Find min-cost matching at max cardinality. 

     2. Find min-cost network flow.  Again, cost of edge is positive
	interger value. 

I am looking for public-domain C code to solve these problems. 
If you have any information, please let me know. 

Thanks.

WJ Sun	
Xref: sparky comp.theory:1045 sci.logic:856
Organization: University of Haifa - Mt. Carmel Haifa, Israel.
Date: Friday, 3 Apr 1992 14:31:32 IST
From: Dan Gordon <RSMA410@HAIFAUVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.theory,sci.logic
Subject: Re: Functions provably recursive in Peano arithmetic.

Pat Fischer's thesis was published as:

P. C. Fischer, Theory of provable recursive functions, Trans.
Amer. Math. Soc. 117 (1965),  494-520.

For complexity issues, see:

P. R. Young, Optimization among provably equivalent programs,
JACM 24 (1977), 693-700.

J. Hartmanis, "Feasible Computations and Provable  Complexity
Properties," SIAM Publications (monograph), 1978.

D. Gordon, Complexity classes of provable recursive functions,
J. Computer & System Science 18 (1979), 294-303.
From: sra20@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Steven R Alexander)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: P!=NP, or April fools...I don't know
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:29:28 GMT
Reply-To: stevena@cs.berkeley.edu (Steven Alexander)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <52788@mimsy.umd.edu> peyote@umiacs.umd.edu (Gary W. Flake) writes:
>
>If the following is a joke, I am very sorry for wasting the bandwidth.
>I thought that it looked reputable enough to repeat. I can't vouch
>for the validity of the article, so please DO NOT SEND ME MAIL ASKING
>QUESTIONS. I WILL IGNORE THE MAIL. This was posted in our local cs
>newsgroup. That's all I know.
>
>Gary Flake
>Spoken: Gary W. Flake  Domain: peyote@umiacs.umd.edu  UUCP: uunet!mimsy!peyote
>Phone: +1-301-405-6757 USPS: UMIACS, U. of Maryland,  College Park, MD 20742

The researchers did NOT purport to have proven whether P=NP.

What they showed is that for a certain class of problems, it is not
true that for all (epsilon > 0), there is a polynomial time algorithm
to APPROXIMATE the solution to the problem within a factor of
(1 + epsilon) UNLESS P=NP.  For certain problems they have a constant
epsilon_0 for which they have shown that no polynomial algorithm
approximates within (1 + epsilon; epsilon < epsilon_0) (again unless
P=NP).

Contrary to the implication of the article, finding these constants
is not mechanical.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Steven Alexander
CS Grad Studentstevena@cs.berkeley.edu
From: kish@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kishore Sarathy)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Wanted : Code for ATSP.
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:08:35 GMT
Reply-To: kish@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kishore Sarathy)
Distribution: na
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
Originator: kish@dopey.cc.utexas.edu

I need a code that gets "good solutions" for the asymmetric traveling
salesman problem. Does anybody on the net have a code that they can
mail to me? 

Secondly, is there an archive site for this newsgroup?  If so, could 
somebody email the address of the site to me.

Thanks in advance.

kishore sarathy.

Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: fruskey@csr.UVic.CA (Frank  Ruskey)
Subject: STOC 92 Registration
Reply-To: fruskey@csr.UVic.CA (Frank  Ruskey)
Organization: University of Victoria
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 18:52:30 GMT

Reminder: This is the last week (10 April) for
           early STOC`92 registration.

John Ellis
.
From: eric@pencom.com
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: On-line algorithms
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:00:37 GMT
Organization: Pencom Software

In article <1992Apr10.163024.16065@watson.ibm.com> mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh  
Mittleman) writes:
> In article <1992Apr10.151344.559@watdragon.waterloo.edu>,
> wlfong@logos.waterloo.edu (Philip W. L. Fong) writes:
> > Does anyone know what on-line algorithm is?  And, any reference for this?
> 
> An on-line algorithm is one which must process its data element-by-element
> in the order received, without looking ahead.  Thus, an on-line sort
> algorithm would have to maintain a sorted list of all the elements received
> so far, and update it as each new element was provided.

A good example of this is multiplying a bunch of matrices
of differing dimensions.  The order in which the matrices
are grouped affects the performance :
   i.e.   (A x B) x C  might be slower than
          A x (B x C)

An off-line algorithm could determine the optimal
multiplication sequence of :
     A x B x C ... Z

while an on-line algorithm would have to evaluate the result
as each new matrix came along.
Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: gil@cc.gatech.edu (Gil Neiger)
Subject: Re: P!=NP, or April fools...I don't know
Organization: College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 21:22:21 GMT

In article <8dN=02Ln0fjp01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> stevena@cs.berkeley.edu
(Steven Alexander) writes:
>
>What they showed is that for a certain class of problems, it is not
>true that for all (epsilon > 0), there is a polynomial time algorithm
>to APPROXIMATE the solution to the problem within a factor of
>(1 + epsilon) UNLESS P=NP.

I am not familiar with this work, so I am asking:  is the above
correct, or should it read "for any (epsilon > 0)"?  I had been
given to understand that, for one problem at least, the above
statement was true, substituting "any" for "all."

					- Gil Neiger
					gil@cc.gatech.edu
Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata
From: cgl@t13.Lanl.GOV (Chris Langton)
Subject: Artificial Life III Workshop (short version).
Organization: The Internet
Distribution: inet
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:40:37 GMT




		  	    Artificial Life III
				
		 	     June 15-19, 1992
			    Santa Fe New Mexico
				
	            <<<<<<<< SHORT ANNOUNCEMENT >>>>>>>>
				
		          Details available via ftp
				

  The Third Artificial Life Workshop will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico
June 15-19, 1992. The workshop is sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute, Los
Alamos National Laboratory, and Apple Computer (* see note below).

  The details on this workshop can be obtained via FTP from host "santafe.edu".
Login as "anonymous" and type your home login@host as password. Cd to the 
"pub" directory, and then to the "Artificial-Life-III" directory. Get the
"README" file for a list of available information, or simply get the file
"alifeiii.packet" for a text version of the announcement brochure containing
most of the relevant information plus conference and hotel registration forms.

  There is a file labeled "current.schedule" which will be updated periodically,
and will always contain the most recent version of the conference schedule.

NOTE: Longer announcement to net will follow....

  This short announcement to the net will be followed by another message 
labeled "Artificial Life III (Long)", which will contain the alifeiii.packet
file described above, so if you ftp'd that file, don't bother to read the long
announcement.


Queries can be directed to: alife@santafe.edu.


Chris Langton
Conference Organizer

Santa Fe Institute			Phone: (505) 984-8800
1660 Old Pecos Trail			FAX:   (505) 
Santa Fe, New Mexico USA
87501



* NOTE: We strongly encourage further corporate sponsorship. Corporate
        sponsors get free booth space, free registrations, and
        several other benefits. Please contact me at the above address
        to receive a packet of information about corporate sponsorship
        of the Alife III workshop.
From: cgl@t13.Lanl.GOV (Chris Langton)
Subject: Artificial 4H Show (at AlifeIII workshop...)
Organization: The Internet
Distribution: inet
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:41:08 GMT




			Artificial Life III
		        Artificial 4-H Show
		          June 19, 1992
		          
		          
  The final day of the upcoming Artificial Life III workshop will
be devoted to an "artificial 4H show". This will involve contests, 
challenges and talent shows for wetware, software, and hardware
artificial  organisms. 

  Bring your artificial creature and show it off! (Please bring 
appropriate scooper!) 

  Organized activities include:

  -  Lego-Logo Robot Design Seminar & Competition 
  -  Robot Games (a mini-version of the annual Robot Olympics) 
  -  Robot Talent Show (show off your robot/creature!)
  -  Obstacle Courses for Mobile Robots
  -  Tierra Digital Organism Seminar & Challenge
  -  Genetic Programming Seminar & Challenge
  
 Some of the design seminars will be held during the entire week
of the workshop, but the challenges and competitions will all be
held during the artificial 4H show, on the last day of the workshop.

  For further information on participation in these events, please contact 
the AlifeIII Organizing Committee (address, email and phones below).  
We'd also like to solicit ideas for other events, and we'd like to hear 
from you if you would like to run a seminar on designing creatures within 
your system during the week of the workshop, aimed at holding a contest 
or talent show during the Artificial 4-H Show. 

  Information on the artificial 4H show (and on the AlifeIII workshop
itself) can also be obtained via ftp from host "santafe.edu". Login as 
"anonymous" and send your home login_id@host as password. Then 
"cd pub/Artificial-Life-III" and "get README", which describes
the various information files available. In particular, the file
"alifeiii.4H_show" contains information about the artificial 4H show
itself, as well as pointers to other files detailing the various
events.



**************************************************************************

AlifeIII Organizing Committee		EMAIL: alife@santafe.edu
Santa Fe Institute			Phone: (505) 984-8800
1660 Old Pecos Trail			FAX:   (505) 982-0565
Santa Fe, New Mexico
87501
From: scandolo@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr (Pascal Scandolo)
Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata
Subject: cellsim under XWindows
Date: 13 Apr 92 08:16:49 GMT
Organization: Alcatel-Alsthom Recherche ( France )


         I try to reach someone who knows an implementation of CellSim (V2.5 or later)
 (simulator Andreas.Nowatzyk CMU) which runs under Xwindows (V4._).


              Thanks in advance for informations.

pascal
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