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by gitgud 2660 days ago
Great name!

So it analyses math equations you input? I would call this a simulation, as my first impression was that it would analyse source code...

1 comments

Yes, it analyzes a formula or recurrence relation - sorry to get your hopes up :-D I wish it could analyze source code, but the halting problem says that would be a bit difficult.

I think one could execute source code with varying size inputs to get an idea of a function's growth (assuming the function does halt), but I haven't thought about what that entails

PS: maybe I should have named it BOFAT (Big O Formula Analyzer Tool)

Surely the halting problem only applies in the general case, i.e. given a ideal enough language you could use heuristics or give results applicable only when in xyz conditions e.g. when these nested for loops are in action it's O(n^2)
Yes, this is likely true - I really need to think about it more, though. I don't know how to do static or runtime analysis, so I can't say much about it