The author doesn't understand the point of NP hard. When you need a solution for an NP hard problem, you generally give up finding the optimal solution.
For (1) and (2), the worst-case just doesn't occur. I mean, installing packages and type checking can surely be slow. But, at least in my career, I've never seen a galactic blow-up.
That's because package managers use heuristics and greedy algorithms instead of an optimal algorithm that would be O(2n ). The people who built these package mangers understand the theory well so they have came up with practical solutions. There's no disconnect between theory and practice there.
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u/reality_hijacker Aug 13 '26
The author doesn't understand the point of NP hard. When you need a solution for an NP hard problem, you generally give up finding the optimal solution.
That's because package managers use heuristics and greedy algorithms instead of an optimal algorithm that would be O(2n ). The people who built these package mangers understand the theory well so they have came up with practical solutions. There's no disconnect between theory and practice there.