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Scheme vs Algorithm - What's the difference?

scheme | algorithm |

As nouns the difference between scheme and algorithm

is that scheme is a systematic plan of future action 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 scheme

is to plot, or contrive a plan.

As a proper noun Scheme

is a programming language, one of the two major dialects of Lisp.

scheme

English

(wikipedia scheme)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A systematic plan of future action.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Ideas coming down the track, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • A plot or secret, devious plan.
  • An orderly combination of related parts.
  • * John Locke
  • the appearance and outward scheme of things
  • * Atterbury
  • such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity
  • * J. Edwards
  • arguments sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy
  • * Macaulay
  • The Revolution came and changed his whole scheme of life.
  • A chart or diagram of a system or object.
  • * South
  • to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France
  • (mathematics) A type of topological space.
  • (UK, chiefly, Scotland) A council housing estate.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 101:
  • It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme .
  • (rhetoric) An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
  • (astrology) A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • a blue case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity
  • Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
  • Usage notes

    In the US, generally has devious connotations, while in the UK, frequently used as a neutral term for projects: “The road is closed due to a pavement-widening scheme.”

    Synonyms

    * (a systematic plan of future action) blueprint

    Verb

    (schem)
  • To plot, or contrive a plan.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=April 26 , author=Tasha Robinson , title=Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits : , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek. }}

    References

    * ----

    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