An Overview of the Theory of Computational Complexity

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline the theory of computational complexity which has emerged as a comprehensive theory during the last decade. This theory is concerned with the quantitative aspects of computations and its central theme is the measuring of the difficulty of computing functions. The paper concentrates on the study of computational complexity measures defined for all computable functions and makes no attempt to survey the whole field exhaustively nor to present the material in historical order. Rather it presents the basic concepts, results, and techniques of computational complexity from a new point of view from which the ideas are more easily understood and fit together as a coherent whole. © 1971, ACM. All rights reserved.