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Process vs Algorithm - What's the difference?

process | algorithm |

Algorithm is a synonym of process.



As nouns the difference between process and algorithm

is that process is a series of events to produce a result, especially as contrasted to product while algorithm is a precise step-by-step plan for a computational procedure that possibly begins with an input value and yields an output value in a finite number of steps.

As a verb process

is to perform a particular process.

process

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl)

Noun

(es)
  • A series of events to produce a result, especially as contrasted to product.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 27, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City , passage=But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.}}
    This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
  • (legal) The act of serving a defendant with a summons or a writ.
  • (biology) An outgrowth of tissue or cell.
  • (anatomy) A structure that arises above a surface.
  • (computing) A task or program that is or was executing.
  • (manufacturing) A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly in the food and chemical industries.
  • * 1960', Mack Tyner, '''''Process''' Engineering Calculations: Material and Energy Balances'' - Ordinarily a '''process''' plant will use a steam boiler to supply its ' process heat requirements and to drive a steam-turbine generator.
  • * 1987', J. R. Richards, ''Principles of control system design'' in ''Modelling and control of fermentation '''process'''es'' - The words ''plant'' or '''''process''''' infer generally any dynamic system, be it primarily mechanical, electrical, or chemical ' process in nature, and may extend also to include social or economic systems.
  • A path of succession of states through which a system passes.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}
  • (lb) Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
  • Derived terms
    * due process * due process of law * due-process * process color, process colour * process hot water * process server * process upset

    Verb

    (es)
  • To perform a particular process.
  • We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.
  • To treat with a substance
  • To think an information over, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it as valid.
  • Etymology 2

    Verb

    (es)
  • (mostly British) To walk in a procession.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    algorithm

    Alternative forms

    * algorism (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A precise step-by-step plan for a computational procedure that possibly begins with an input value and yields an output value in a finite number of steps.
  • * 1990 , Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest, Introduction to Algorithms'': page 1. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, 1999 (''23rd printing )
  • Informally, an algorithm''''' is any well-defined computational procedure that takes some value, or set of values, as input and produces some value, or set of values, as output. An ' algorithm is thus a sequence of computational steps that transform the input into the output.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}
  • (archaic) Calculation with Arabic numerals; algorism.
  • Hyponyms

    (hyp-top) * approximation algorithm * checksum algorithm * classification algorithm * compression algorithm * computer arithmetic algorithm * distributed algorithm * divide and conquer algorithm (hyp-mid) * genetic algorithm * greedy algorithm * parallel algorithm * randomized algorithm * randomized algorithm * semi-algorithm * sequential algorithm (hyp-bottom)

    Usage notes

    * Though some technical definitions require that an algorithm always terminate in a finite number of steps, this distinction is not generally observed in practice.

    See also

    * data structure * function * program