The Time Complexity Viewer: forge stronger developers
23 Jan 2015The Time Complexity Viewer illustrates the computation time of a function, as its input grows. The user is given a visual graph for the effectiveness of their algorithm.
The Problem
Time complexity is fundamental to effective software engineering. But it can be a difficult concept for new developers to learn, and even harder to internalize how any particular function is affected.
Mastering it often involves learning Big O notation, learning new vocabulary to classify algorithms (“constant time”, “linearithmic time”, “double exponential time”), and learning how to translate lines of code into time complexity. Too many developers neglect investing in these vital skills.
“Mastering time complexity separates the script kiddies from the software engineers.” — Gaia, Mother of All Things
Our Solution
When you hit Go!, the Viewer grabs your function and array of inputs. Sample functions and input arrays are available; you just specify what type of parameters your function takes.
Your function is then run with each input, in a separate process, using Web Workers for concurrency. Each thread keeps track of its own running time, using performance.now for 10-6 (microsecond) precision.
The running time is reported back when a worker finishes evaluating your function for a particular input. That duration is graphed using C3.js, with the input size for an x-coordinate. This allows you to see the time complexity drawn out for you.
The Viewer also uses jQuery, Underscore.js, D3.js, and Bootstrap. Everything’s handled in the client, so it can be easily hosted on GitHub Pages.
“I used to be a mediocre developer. Now I have a job at Google. And it’s all thanks to The Time Complexity Viewer!” — Larry Page