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From: dbc@bushido.uucp (Dave Caswell)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: A very brief history of optimal sorting methods
Message-ID: <1990Nov18.025739.2579@bushido.uucp>
Date: 18 Nov 90 02:57:39 GMT
References: <4440:Nov1405:06:2590@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <5948@lanl.gov> <5293:Nov1518:36:0490@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <6067@lanl.gov>
Organization: Bushido Systems of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Lines: 30

In article <6067@lanl.gov> ttw@lanl.gov (Tony Warnock) writes:
.>
.>
.>Dan Bernstein has posted the following advice:
.>"Please don't say anything if you don't know what you're talking about."
.> 
.>He has incorrectly stated the complexity of sorting.
.>Perhaps he could follow his own advice:
.>"Please don't say anything if you don't know what you're talking about."
.> 
.>He has stated that "a few bits" are all that are necessary to represent
.>value that grows combinatorily.
.>Perhaps he could follow his own advice:
.>"Please don't say anything if you don't know what you're talking about."
.> 
.>He has incorrectly stated that Fortran does not have separate compilation.
.>Perhaps he could follow his own advice:
.>"Please don't say anything if you don't know what you're talking about."
.> 
.>
.
I read this group religiously and haven't seen Dan make statements that
would backup the above claims.  I think it's more likely you don't know
the answers.  I often ask people about sorting at interviews, anyone
who just regurgitates a quote like n log n loses.  I don't have a book
that discusses sorting (Knuth etc.) that says the "answer" is n log n.


-- 
David Caswell                             dbc%bushido.uucp@umich.edu