Question

I’m having problems to recall the name of doing something with quadratic complexity when it can be solved linearly.

For example, using a get-by-index function to iterate over a linked list instead of just using a next-element is the typical case of this antipattern.

I think it was the “something painter”, as a metaphor of a guy that is painting a road, but doesn’t carry with him the paint bucket and has to come back to the starting point every time he needs to refill the brush.

Cheers.

Answer 1

You’re probably thinking of Schlemiel the Painter’s Algorithm.

There’s a classic joke on the topic that Joel Spolsky included in his Back to Basics article some years ago:

Shlemiel gets a job as a street
painter, painting the dotted lines
down the middle of the road. On the
first day he takes a can of paint out
to the road and finishes 300 yards of
the road. “That’s pretty good!” says
his boss, “you’re a fast worker!” and
pays him a kopeck.

The next day Shlemiel only gets 150
yards done. “Well, that’s not nearly
as good as yesterday, but you’re still
a fast worker. 150 yards is
respectable,” and pays him a kopeck.

The next day Shlemiel paints 30 yards
of the road. “Only 30!” shouts his
boss. “That’s unacceptable! On the
first day you did ten times that much
work! What’s going on?”

“I can’t help it,” says Shlemiel.
“Every day I get farther and farther
away from the paint can!”

P.S. Don’t confuse this with the Painter’s Algorithm, which is an actual method for composing images.