Despite its scarily maths-sounding name, I suspect that you have already come across modulo arithmetic, even though it probably didn't have that name. In this article I'll go into a few examples of modulo arithmetic in the everyday world, and how the practical limitations faced by computers cause modulo arithmetic to crop up when you … Continue reading Modulo arithmetic in everyday life and code
Category: Computer theory
Balanced trees
In a previous article on complexity, i.e. performance trends in code, I said that trees can be useful ways of storing data, but they only work if they’re reasonably well balanced. In this context, balanced means that no path from the root node of the tree to a leaf node is much longer than any … Continue reading Balanced trees
Fuzzy matching – context and testing
This is the third article in a short series on fuzzy matching: Introduction Example algorithms Testing and context In this article I will consider the difference between context-dependent and context-independent fuzziness, and think about how fuzzy matching systems can be tested. Context-dependent and context-independent fuzziness If you are trying to do fuzzy matching of strings, … Continue reading Fuzzy matching – context and testing
Fuzzy matching – example algorithms
This is the second article in a short series on fuzzy matching: Introduction Example algorithms Testing and context In this article I will go into three algorithms that are examples of fuzzy matching – Levenshtein distance, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Levenshtein distance The Levenshtein distance is a way to do … Continue reading Fuzzy matching – example algorithms
Fuzzy matching – introduction
This is the first article in a short series on fuzzy matching: Introduction Example algorithms Testing and context In this article I’ll describe how fuzzy matching is different from non-fuzzy or conventional matching, why you might want to use it, and some of what makes it hard. Conventional matching In conventional matching, when you compare … Continue reading Fuzzy matching – introduction
Modelling a river lock
In this article I will model a lock on a river or canal. As well as going into the specifics of the model, I’ll touch on more general topics about modelling. These are things like diagrams to represent the model, tools, models as conversation starters, iterating models etc. A lock has a model that is … Continue reading Modelling a river lock
Computer science while doing the laundry 2: Bin sort
This is part of a short series of articles about computer science while doing the laundry: Merge sortBin sort In the previous article I used doing a lot of laundry to illustrate merge sort, which is probably an impractical way of doing the laundry. In this article I will suggest a way that might actually … Continue reading Computer science while doing the laundry 2: Bin sort
Computer science while doing the laundry 1: Merge sort
This is part of a short series of computer science involving laundry: Merge sortBin sort In this article I will explain merge sort, which is a way of sorting things when there are so many of them it’s awkward or impossible to use other approaches. I’ll use doing the laundry as a way of explaining … Continue reading Computer science while doing the laundry 1: Merge sort
Connecting Azure Data Factory code to an external database table
In this article I will talk about how to connect Azure Data Factory (ADF) to a database table. This can be surprisingly complex, so I will start with the simplest version and work towards more complex versions. I won't go into connecting ADF to other types of data store such as APIs, blob storage etc, … Continue reading Connecting Azure Data Factory code to an external database table
An introduction to parameterised types
This article is about parameterised types, which are also known as generics or parametric polymorphism. I first came across them in the functional programming language ML, but they have spread beyond the functional programming world, to languages like Java, C#, and TypeScript. Parameterised types let you define a family of similar but different types What … Continue reading An introduction to parameterised types
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