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Subject:More complex magic procedures From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Thu, 22 Jan 1998 10:22:49 -0600
A thought occurs to me. Mike Wing's proposed problem with
an application that has hundreds of permutations and
combinations is a common one: how do you find the shortest
path through a complex series of choices and thereby
present the user with an optimal solution?
Fortunately, I came across an elegant, mildly mathematical
approach that can help you do just that. It's described in
the following article, and it's a marvelous tool for
analyzing and improving decision trees:
Jansen, C.J.M.; Steehouder, M.F. 1996. The sequential order
of procedural instructions: some formal methods for
designers of flow charts. J. Tech. Writing Comm.
26(4):453-473. (I think that's "26"... it might be 28, but
my photocopy is not very clear.)
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
