Showing posts with label optimization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optimization. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Proposal for Boyer-Moore String Pattern Search Algorithm Optimization

I first encountered the Boyer-Moore string search algorithm in mid-1990s when it was mentioned in a local computer magazine discussing virus detection mechanisms and referred to Cormen's Introduction to Algorithms for more details.

Back then, DOS was king and Microsoft was omnipotent, with computer viruses as nuances in one's computing experience, the holy grail of computer programming enthusiasts in my former university (but my college alma mater is here) was anti-virus programming.

The paradox is that to learn how to create an anti-virus you have to create a virus against which it should work. Mark Ludwig's bookwas a coveted possession but the only one I got my hands on was Ralf Burger's work and I learned how to make a functional computer virus then. To fix the problem, you have to find it (fast!); this is where virus detection becomes critical, and Boyer-Moore string search algorithm is one of the best algorithms known then for this purpose.