Re: Using Lua in programming contests

[Martin <eden_martin_fuhrspam@...>]

On 17-01-05 12:59 PM, Coda Highland wrote:
> In Pascal and C you can get away with a linear array of key-value
> pairs instead of using a hash table, because the underlying
> performance is orders of magnitude higher than an interpreted
> language. You could also use a binary tree instead of a hash table,
> which is a much simpler implementation than a hash table while still
> being faster than a linear array.
> 
> The whole point is that you don't have to use the most efficient
> algorithm available to you when you're getting compiled to optimized
> machine code; you can just brute force your way through it with
> something good enough.
> 
> /s/ Adam

Agree. In "real world" this is true. (Although brute-force solutions
have horrible scalability.)

But in programming contests mentioned scaling coefficients are used to
equalize solutions in different languages. This is done because contest
problems are not about minimal runtime but about most effective algorithm.

Martin.