Hmmm? Generally agree with the plane flight example, but linear programming seems like a surprisingly bad example to pick. Karmarkar's algorithm has allowed the essential insight of linear programming to be generalized into a programme for optimizing any convex function, subject to convex constraints, over a convex set (see Stanford's EE364).
I assume you are familiar with this as 1988 = date of Fulkerson prize for Karmarkar's work? I guess the point narrowly holds if you're thinking of pure LP rather than general CP. But general CP is really quite a big deal.
I assume you are familiar with this as 1988 = date of Fulkerson prize for Karmarkar's work? I guess the point narrowly holds if you're thinking of pure LP rather than general CP. But general CP is really quite a big deal.