Is there a history of attempts to write a shortest path algorithms? And how they failed? What was their thinking process. I am currently learning about link-state routing and I am unable to figure out centralized dijkstra's algorithm even after being stuck in screen/textbook for lots of hours. It is extremely overwhelming to me. Thus, if I could get ideas on why the algorithm was exactly made, why was it chosen for routing purposes, and stuffs like that, that'd greatly be of benefit to me.
To find the answer, I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra%27s_algorithm
And it's a fun little article about how Dijkstra thought it all out and made the algorithm. There is a step-by-step calculation that runs until one of the calculated paths reaches the destination. That first path is therefore the shortest.
The algorithm also works, with modifications, to present ranked-choice alternatives to the shortest path, should it become unavailable or degraded.
Other shortest-path solutions are discussed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_problem . Solutions don't necessarily fail, but are rather perhaps better for some applications than others.