[mafm]

> [...] I don't know why it is called Dynamic programming.

According to Richard Bellman, who came up with the name:

  An interesting question is, Where did the name, dynamic programming, come from?

  The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. We had a very interesting gentleman in Washington
  named Wilson. He was Secretary of Defense, and he actually had a pathological fear and hatred of the 
  word research. [...] What title, what name, could I choose?
  
  In the first place I was interested in planning, in decision making, in thinking. But planning, is not a
  good word for various reasons. I decided therefore to use the word "programming"

  [...] it's impossible to use the word "dynamic" in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination
  that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It's impossible.

  Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to.

[jonsen]

Formatted for mobile:

According to Richard Bellman, who came up with the name:

An interesting question is, Where did the name, dynamic programming, come from?

The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. We had a very interesting gentleman in Washington named Wilson. He was Secretary of Defense, and he actually had a pathological fear and hatred of the word research. [...] What title, what name, could I choose?

In the first place I was interested in planning, in decision making, in thinking. But planning, is not a good word for various reasons. I decided therefore to use the word "programming"

[...] it's impossible to use the word "dynamic" in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It's impossible.

Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to.

[matt-snider]

Thanks :-). This comes up so often! Is there a reason HN doesn't use a more mobile-friendly format for preformatted text?

[stan_rogers]

The feature is intended for code, note block quotes. Auto line wraps would be less than helpful.

[jonsen]

Problem is when some text copied and pasted here incidentally starts paragraphs with two or more spaces. And maybe the the commenter does not know why it formats weirdly.

[frosted-flakes]

Yeah, but code blocks are still limited in width on mobile. At least let them flow to the edge of the screen before scrolling.

[mafm]

Thanks. (I have now looked up the correct way to quote).

[oblio]

> We had a very interesting gentleman in Washington named Wilson. He was Secretary of Defense, and he actually had a pathological fear and hatred of the word research.

Amusingly, Engine Charlie [1] was an engineer. You'd think an engineer understands the value of research :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Erwin_Wilson