In the first part of the paper we survey some far-reaching application
s of the basic facts of linear programming to the combinatorial theory
of simple polytopes. In the second part we discuss some recent develo
pments concerning the simplex algorithm. We describe subexponential ra
ndomized pivot rules and upper bounds on the diameter of graphs of pol
ytopes. (C) 1997 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published
by Elsevier Science B.V.