[readthenotes1]

That is exactly right as anybody who has done the work in a wrong way recognizes.

In a way, the computer science student may or may not have realized that he has stumbled upon one of the biggest problems in software development--the arrogance of ignorance.

Especially with lawn mowers, turns are highly weighted over distance. Also, if you are regularly mowing, then it's not so obvious what has been mowed and what not. So regularization and simplification of the path is even more important than turns so that you can discard whole plots in the to-do list.

Roomba's (RIP) don't have the same memory and turn weight function that humans do, of course.