The Huffman Coding algorithm is a building block of many compression algorithms, such as DEFLATE — which is used by the PNG image format and GZIP. (subscribers to my newsletter received this first) Why should I care? Have you ever wanted to know: How do we compress something, without losing any data? Why do…

(originally sent to the :BaseClass newsletter) Why should I care? The ‘DRY’ Principle — or ‘Don’t Repeat Yourself’ is one of the most commonly quoted, but most commonly misunderstood pieces of guidance in programming. While the premise is simple, it can lead to over-abstraction and hard to maintain code when misinterpreted. Don’t Repeat Yourself The DRY principle…

What is TCP? TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a protocol for machines to communicate over a network, and is the foundation on which the internet is built. One of the most useful characteristics of TCP is that it is ‘resilient’, which means it can cope with an unreliable network without losing any data. …

Learn what the Depth-First Search algorithm is. — In the last issue, we talked about ‘Breadth-First Search’ and ‘Depth-First Search’ as two of the most common algorithms we use when working with graphs. Last time, we looked at Breadth-First Search (BFS). Today, we’ll cover the other, Depth-First Search (DFS). Why should I care? A lot of algorithms are implemented for you as…

A deep-dive into Breadth-First Search. — Breadth-First Search and Depth-First Search are two of the most common algorithms we use when working with graphs. Here we’ll look at the first of those, Breadth-First Search. Why should I care? A lot of algorithms are implemented for you as part of your chosen language. …

We say a data structure is ‘linear’ if the items inside it are stored in a sequence. Arrays, linked lists, and stacks are all linear data structures. Why should I care? We use these data structures every day in programming. Even if you’re already familiar with them, it’s helpful to recap them occasionally. In 5 minutes or less As…

Jaro-Winkler similarity is a way of measuring how similar two strings are. It is fairly easy to understand and quick to implement. Why should I care? String similarity metrics have various uses; from user-facing search functionality to spell checkers. There are a few common string similarity metrics. Knowing a little about each will help…

Floating-point is a way of storing numbers in binary. It allows us to store a very large range of values using a fixed amount of space. But, floating-point numbers (a.k.a. ‘floats’) can cause you some problems if you’re not careful. Why should I care? Have you ever wanted to know: Why 0.1 + 0.3…

CAP Theorem describes the decisions we have to make when building a distributed data store. Why should I care? Have you ever wanted to know: How distributed databases handle network failures? What tradeoffs we must make when designing distributed data stores? In 5 minutes or less Eric Brewer’s CAP Theorem tells us that a distributed data store must choose…