TITLE: What is linear programming?
QUESTION [13 upvotes]: I asked this question on Stack Overflow but it was closed as "not programming related". So I think this is probably the best place for it...

I read over the wikipedia article, but it seems to be beyond my comprehension. It says it's for optimization, but how is it different than any other method for optimizing things?
An answer that introduces me to linear programming so I can begin diving into some less beginner-accessible material would be most helpful.

REPLY [3 votes]: I suggest you this article, which talks about Linear Equations, Linear Programming, Integer Programming and P=NP. It's easy to understand and talks about the differences among these things