The notion of algorithm in the context of C++ development stands for two quite different things:

- The STL algorithms. Most of them are more or less trivial convenience functions. Their greatest value is that they release you from writing tedious loops and guessing the right spelling of the rather elaborated iterator types.
  Polymake Template Library has overloaded a couple of the standard algorithms with versions adapted for iterators with advanced properties.
- Non-trivial algorithms in mathematical sense. Most of them are encapsulated in application-specific client programs. This section describes only those that are implemented as callable library functions. Currently there are pretty few of them.