Parametric search made practical
René van Oostrum, Remco C. Veltkamp · 2002
In this paper we show that in sorting-based applications of parametric search, Quicksort can replace the parallel sorting algorithms that are usually advocated, and we argue that Cole's optimization of certain parametric-search algorithms may be unnecessary under realistic assumptions about the input. Furthermore, we present a generic, flexible, and easy-to-use framework that greatly simplifies the implementation of algorithms based on parametric search. We use our framework to implement an algorithm that solves the Fréchet-distance problem. The implementation based on parametric search is faster than the binary-search approach that is often suggested as a practical replacement for the parametric-search technique.