Have you ever seen people say things like “O(lg n)”?
These people are bad people. Say “O(log n)”. It sounds like you have a vowel disorder when you say “lg(n)”. Oh, what’s that? You want the binary logarithm function? Well it doesn’t matter when using O notation. Stop bothering to specify the base of your logarithm (unless it’s in an exponent, of course). And if you’re outside of O notation, or inside an exponent, what should you use? Should you use lg(n) then?
No, you bad person, you shouldn’t! Say log2(n), you big baby. Or if anything, say lb(n). That way you’re being all “logarithm, binary.” It doesn’t sound like you’re trying to strangle yourself when saying it. How in the world does “lg” come to mean log base 2? It makes no sense. You are a bad person if you do that. lb(n) is pronounced “blog of n,” by the way.
Seriously, if you use “lg” on a regular basis, you should get yourself checked out, psychiatrically, OK you know what? NEW RULE: Firefox shouldn’t be trying to spell-check me if it doesn’t have a complete dictionary. It’s giving me the red underline with “psychiatrically.” Is there a way to turn this off? Oh, there is! Now, where were we? Ah, yes, get your self checked out psychiatcicrally. Thanks.
lb(n) is just so much better than *shudder* lg(n). Using lg is practically racist, because instead of being a logger, you are now a lgger, and who knows what vowel goes between the l and the g?
At least you aren’t saying “ln(x)”. The lawn of x. Yawn. And then.. the “ln(ln(x))” or lon lon of x. Zelda humor!