Python Algorithms: Mastering Basic Algorithms in the Python Language, Second Edition

CHAPTER 4

Induction and Recursion ... and Reduction

You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.

— Beppo Roadsweeper, in Momo by Michael Ende

In this chapter, I lay the foundations for your algorithm design skills. Algorithm design can be a hard thing to teach because there are no clear recipes to follow. There are some foundational principles, though, and one that pops up again and again is the principle of abstraction. I’m betting you’re quite familiar with several kinds of abstraction already—most ...