Questions tagged [theory]
Theoretical question deal with topics that do not generally have immediate practical uses. Please be careful when using this tag: your question may be more appropriate for the Computer Science Stack Exchange site.
164 questions
2 votes
2 answers
380 views
Why is the 8-bit exponent of the IEEE 754 32-bit float not byte-aligned?
There is already a prior question dealing with why certain bit-widths were chosen (although I do find it somewhat insufficient, but that's another topic), but what strikes me as unusual is how the ...
- 132
0 votes
1 answer
111 views
Concatenating strings given a BNF grammar
<Definition> ::= <Name> <LeftPar> <param> <RightPar> <Name> ::= <Letter><LetterTail> <LetterTail> ::= <Letter><LetterTail> | ‘’ A ...
- 11
-3 votes
3 answers
212 views
NP-complete problem (subset sum) featured in Netflix series "Suits" S1 E8? [closed]
In the Netflix series Suits, Season 1, Episode 8 (Identity Crisis), the legal team, with the help of a hacker, is tasked with proving that a business magnate embezzled funds, splitting them and ...
- 203
30 votes
7 answers
17k views
How can lossless compression ever exist?
If all data is essentially just a bit string, then all data can be represented as a number. Because a compression algorithm, c(x), must reduce or keep the same length of the input, then the compressed ...
- 475
2 votes
0 answers
172 views
Cohesion and coupling possible combination in software
I know what we mean by cohesion and coupling in software. And generally the best practice is to achieve high cohesion with low coupling. It seems to me though that they are inter-related. I.e. you ...
- 359
-2 votes
1 answer
298 views
Why is the If-then-else, while loop and for loop a structured programming control structure?
When defining McCabe's essential complexity, the idea of a structured programming control structure is present. I don't understand why an if-then-else, a while loop or a for loop can be reduced to a ...
- 219
1 vote
1 answer
177 views
How does the classic proof for the halting problem work?
I've looked up a lot proofs for the halting problem (that are basic enough that I can understand what they are trying say ^^) but for all of them I don't get their last step right before they pull the ...
- 129
3 votes
5 answers
517 views
Always better to wait?
I've been wondering if this concept has a name and a consolidated theory behind. If you need to build software, but you don't need it right now, it's always better to wait because the technology ...
- 155