Comparing Algorithms: Rules of Thumb and an Example

This paper provides twenty rules of thumb for comparing algorithms having the same function, one of which is to be selected for use in an intelligent system. The rules are illuminated by a specific example, the comparison of three algorithms for dealing with the collection of open nodes that is at the heart of the Dijkstra graph search method. For each rule, a description is given of how the rule was applied in building the example.