A terminological proposal

  • Authors:
  • D. E. Knuth

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGACT News
  • Year:
  • 1974

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Abstract

While preparing a book on combinatorial algorithms, I felt a strong need for a new technical term, a word which is essentially a one-sided version of polynomial complete. A great many problems of practical interest have the property that they are at least as difficult to solve in polynomial time as those of the Cook-Karp class KP. I needed an adjective to convey such a degree of difficulty, both formally and informally; and since the range of practical applications is so broad, I felt it would be best to establish such a term as soon as possible.