Re: Sukhotin's algorithm

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Grant wrote:
 
> Question: given a VMS-sized alphabet and a modern PC, do you really need
> Sukhotin's algorithm, or is it practical to calculate the division into
> vowels and consonants which maximizes F(V,C) + F(C,V) by brute force?
...
> If a 100 MHz processor gave you 100 million operations/sec it would take
> 10,000 seconds or about three hours to complete the calculation. (It
> would take more than one instruction time to do the calculation but
> still a do-able amount of time for a one-shot calculation).

True. Remember that that algorithm was elaborated  in the 
days when a brute-force approach was quite out of the question.
But with the 1GHz processors they're churning out now...

However, in my view, the value of  the VMS, and of trying to
decipher it, is not in the eating,  it's in the cooking.
A  brute-force approach will not advance our  understanding
of haute cuisine -- of  how to go about deciphering the
next riddle, like when we make contact with extraterrestrial
intelligent beings (which I hope to see in my life time).

Jorge, que coisa pensa Você de isso? (All  right, I am
sure it is dreadful Brazilian, but my Portuguese is
44 years rusty)