[Jprogramming] largest rectangle problem

[Raul Miller]

Something I stumbled over today.

If we have a series of bars of varying height, what's the largest
rectangle that can be drawn over the bars without covering any empty
space.

For example:

   '*'#"0~2 6 7 4 1 7
**
******
*******
****
*
*******

I'll post a solution later, and I'll be interested in seeing if it's
basically the only obvious approach or if there's a variety of good
approaches. (I have reason to believe, though, that there's a better
way than what I came up with.)

Thanks,

-- 
Raul