[EM] Hello again -- and a new method for you!

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Hi Jobst,

On Apr 10, 2004, at 7:50 PM, Jobst Heitzig wrote:

> The River Method – Top-Down Version:
> 1. DISCUSS all options at once.
> 2. VOTE: By pairwise comparisons, determine the widths of all possible
> river beds.
> 3. SORT the widths and process the river beds in groups of equal width,
> in descending order.
> 4. VERIFY: For each river bed in the current group, check whether the
> rivers do follow it and draw it in that case.
> 5. PROCEED with the group of river bed of the next smallest width until
> all have processed.
> In this version, no fixing is needed!

I commend you on your enthusiasm and focus on easily visualizable 
metaphors.

However, my impression is that the nasty nuts-and-bolts of most methods 
come from having to deal with same-size majorities, which is where (and 
why) they differ.   I think several methods have suggested 
ordered-comparison rather than 'fixing'.    Still, they all (including 
mine) get complicated when two incompatible decisions have the same 
size.  Any thoughts on how to finesse that?

-- Ernie P.