Wikipedia is fab, isn’t it? But, every now and then it throws up information that really doesn’t help. I’m currently writing a feature for the journal Complexus, for which I’m an editorial board member, and the phrase Constraint satisfaction problem is key to understanding the research paper I’m writing about. So, thinking good-old Wiki could help out with a neat and crisp definition for our readers, I plugged in the phrase, like you do. Bingo! There she blows!
Trouble is the definition apears to be entirely circular – a CSP being simply a problem the solution to which must satisfy certain constraints. That’s the equivalent of defining a long curvy yellow fruit as a “fruit that is yellow, curved, and long” isn’t it?
So, if anyone has a neat and crisp definition of CPS they’d like to share please let me know…
Now….where’s that banana?