Big O notation is about what matters when the numbers get big. - programming.dev
programming.dev
It’s about asking, “how does this algorithm behave when the number of elements is significantly large compared to when the number of elements is orders of magnitude larger?” Big O notation is useless for smaller sets of data. Sometimes it’s worse than useless, it’s misguiding. This is because Big O is only an estimate of asymptotic behavior. An algorithm that is O(n^2) can be faster than one that’s O(n log n) for smaller sets of data (which contradicts the table below) if the O(n log n) algorithm has significant computational overhead and doesn’t start behaving as estimated by its Big O classification until after that overhead is consumed. #computerscience Image Alt Text: “A graph of Big O notation time complexity functions with Number of Elements on the x-axis and Operations(Time) on the y-axis. Lines on the graph represent Big O functions which are are overplayed onto color coded regions where colors represent quality from Excellent to Horrible Functions on the graph: O(1): constant - Excellent/Best - Green O(log n): logarithmic - Good/Excellent - Green O(n): linear time - Fair - Yellow O(n * log n): log linear - Bad - Orange O(n^2): quadratic - Horrible - Red O(n^3): cubic - Horrible (Not shown) O(2^n): exponential - Horrible - Red O(n!): factorial - Horrible/Worst - Red” Source [https://alpha.polymaths.social/@ericjmorey/statuses/01HGGPST0FNXW2YZYV3QZQ3Z1N]

I gave my best effort to make a post on a Lemmy instance accessible to the visibly impaired, but I don’t know if what I did was effective. Lemmy doesn’t provide for alt text on image posts, so I figured I would put it in the body of the post. It seem that rind.com hasn’t had much activity. Is Lemmy simply not workable for rblind.com’s intended purpose?

  • MostlyBlindGamerMAEnglish
    3·
    7 months ago

    Lemmy supports alt text via image caption notation, so images in the body of a post can have alt text.

    Your text description is very good and adds clarity for people who may not have the full context, so it’s good to have it in the body.

    In this case, I’d actually make the image alt text very brief: “graph representing Big O performance, description in body.”

    As for rblind’s activity, Lemmy in general isn’t very active (compared to other platforms) and we’re sort of a niche within a niche.

    By the way, the use of color in the graph is not accessible to colorblind people. Labeling the regions with numbers, letters or patterns would help with. It even the names in the legend, actually.

    • ericjmorey@programming.devOPEnglish
      3·
      7 months ago

      the use of color in the graph is not accessible to colorblind people

      OOF

      I didn’t make the image itself. Maybe I’ll give making my own version with better a color scheme and fixing the legend a shot.

      Lemmy supports alt text via image caption notation, so images in the body of a post can have alt text.

      Still no way to do it for an image post though, right? I’m not sure what image caption notation is. Is that a markdown thing?

      Generally speaking is it better to keep alt text short ans provide more detail outside of the alt text? Is this a personal taste thing or an idiomatic practice?

      Lemmy in general isn’t very active (compared to other platforms) and we’re sort of a niche within a niche.

      I think Lemmy.world has a sustainable level of activity, but I would like to see it grow a bit. The Lemmy service software itself leaves a lot to be desired. Community discovery has a lot of friction. But I also see that it only takes a few enthusiastic users in a community to gain traction.

      • MostlyBlindGamerMAEnglish
        5·
        7 months ago

        Screen readers have robust navigation tools that allow you to go back a word or reread a paragraph, but alt text is read as a single block, so it’s always best to keep it reasonably short. Having a description in the body also helps low-vision users, who may not use a screen reader, and other users with cognitive disabilities.

        Captions are a non-standard Markdown feature, but work on Lemmy the same way as link text.

      • Samuel ProulxMAEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        Community discovery has a lot of friction.

        On top of that, communities are just slow to grow in general. We ran the Reddit community for five or six years before it really caught on. I suspect Lemmy will have similarly slow growth.

        Another issue is that we still don’t have apps for mobile that are as nice as Dystopia. The website is fine, and there are some decent apps out there, but none quite as frictionless. It was the advent of Dystopia and Apollo that really caused /r/blind to take off. With those apps gone, if someone is going to have to use a worse app anyway, why not stick to Reddit? I think for some folks it feels like they have less to relearn that way.

        Regardless, we’re here for the duration! I’ve left Reddit entirely, so I use rblind.com daily myself as the replacement. And the things that have lasting power are the things the people running it use themselves.

        I think what would really cause us to grow is if things like Guppe Groups ever have to shut down. Blind folks are hugely involved in Mastodon, and we’re already seeing some folks use rblind in similar ways they use Mastodon groups. It does boost everything posted, so it kind of works that way.