Ask HN: Why is big O often used in CS when omega or theta should be used?
2 amichail 5 4/30/2025, 6:06:22 PM
Do most people not know about omega and theta or perhaps they intentionally misuse asymptotic notation?
Comments (5)
compressedgas · 9h ago
I've found some people on a well known QA site to be so strict with big-O notation that I don't use it anymore and instead only refer to constant, linear, quadratic time and so on. Even when O(1), O(n), O(n^2) would be actually easier to write even if they are technically wrong.
adrianN · 13h ago
Finding lower bounds is generally more difficult.
amichail · 13h ago
People often use big O notation in all cases including for lower bounds.
adrianN · 2h ago
BigO for lower bounds is plain wrong
numpad0 · 11h ago
Those aren't in the ASCII table.