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What are mathematicians talking about when using the terms linear programming (LP), quadratic programming (QP), semidefinite programming (SDP), cone programming (CP), dynamic programming (DP), etc?

It's definitely not the same thing as coding, but I am bit confused about the semantics of the term in certain mathematical context.

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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pmixer
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1 Answers1

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There is some discussion of the origins in Program does not equal program: Constraint programming and its relationship to mathematical programming.

Lustig's Ph.D. advisor was George Dantzig, who is often called the "father of linear programming."

RobPratt
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    The key point is that "programming" and particular "linear programming" were terms used for planning problems before computer programming was a thing that people did. – Brian Borchers Mar 07 '20 at 20:32
  • Thx! So later people picked up the term and extensively use for more optimization problems? – pmixer Mar 07 '20 at 22:48
  • A “program” was a list of steps that you planned to do. Today, TV stations still have “TV programs”: This show at 8am, that one at 8:45am, news at 9:20 am and so on, that’s a “program”. “For producing 100 bicycles, buy the following items: …” is a program. “Programming” was the term for finding good or optimal programs. Totally unrelated to computer software. – gnasher729 Aug 03 '23 at 09:12
  • And it’s not really a mathematical term either. Finding good programs was a problem, like cooking nice food is a problem. Finding good programs is a problem where mathematics can help a lot, while cooking nice food requires very little mathematics. But both are not mathematical problems, it’s just that mathematicians figured out how to solve the first one. And computer software helps with big problems that are too much work otherwise. – gnasher729 Aug 03 '23 at 09:17