computer science

Nigel Horspool

Nigel Horspool is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nigel Horspool rather than just read about it. In short: R. Nigel Horspool is a retired professor of computer science, formerly of the University of Victoria.

Key takeaways

Nigel Horspool belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nigel Horspool to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nigel Horspool from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

R. Nigel Horspool is a retired professor of computer science, formerly of the University of Victoria. He invented the Boyer–Moore–Horspool algorithm, a fast string search algorithm adapted from the Boyer–Moore string-search algorithm. Horspool is co-inventor of dynamic Markov compression and was associate editor and then editor-at-large of the journal Software: Practice and Experience from 2007 to 2017. He is the author of C Programming in the Berkeley UNIX Environment. Nigel Horspool is British by birth, but is now a citizen of Canada. After a public school education at Monmouth School, he studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a BA in natural science, but specializing in theoretical physics, in 1969. After two years employment as an assembly language programmer on a partially successful air traffic control system project, he went to the University of Toronto for an MSc followed by a PhD in computer science. This was followed by seven years as an assistant professor and then an associate professor at McGill University. In 1983, he made a permanent move to the University of Victoria. As of July 2016, he retired from the university but retains the title of professor emeritus.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nigel Horspool

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nigel Horspool claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nigel Horspool before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nigel Horspool ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nigel Horspool

In research: Nigel Horspool appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nigel Horspool in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nigel Horspool is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics British computer scientists, Canadian computer scientists, Computer scientist stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nigel Horspool outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nigel Horspool in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nigel Horspool means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nigel Horspool out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nigel Horspool in simple terms?

R. Nigel Horspool is a retired professor of computer science, formerly of the University of Victoria.

Why does Nigel Horspool matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nigel Horspool?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nigel Horspool.