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 does not attempt to give an exhaustive survey but instead 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 coherant whole.