In the following example, we see that the algorithm begins with initializing α* to minus infinity. What exactly does this mean? Is it an array?
input:
(x1, . . . , xr),(y1, . . . , yr), w, V, ∆
assumptions:
∆ is a function of a, b, c, d
V contains all vectors for which f(a, b) = 1 for some function f
initialize:
P = |{i : yi = 1}|, N = |{i : yi = −1}|
µ = (hw, x1i, . . . ,hw, xri), α* = −∞
"Minus infinity" is just that - negative infinity value.
Usually used for finding max of some sequence/set as it is defintely less than any non-infinite value.
Most languages support IEE floating point which directly includes positive and negative infinity. If language you are using does not support such value for numeric type you can often use other "nothing there" value (i.e. null for some languages) or structure with "value is set flag, value" to represent such cases.
Note that you should make sure operations with infinity correctly support operations algorithm requires (usually just comparison that should work).
