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From: drake@drake.almaden.ibm.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.periphs
Subject: Re: External Sorting
Keywords: Sorting, Tapes
Message-ID: <467@rufus.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 91 05:28:22 GMT
References: <1991Jan28.031017.19886@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Sender: news@rufus.UUCP
Organization: IBM Almaden Research Center
Lines: 21

In article <1991Jan28.031017.19886@comp.vuw.ac.nz> robert@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Robert Biddle) writes:
>Is External Sorting done much anymore?

Oh, heavens, YES!

Electronic Data Processing ... COBOL, accountants, that kind of stuff ...
is essentially all about inputting data to SORT, and the data files used
are absolutely, positively too big to fit in main memory.  

It is very rare these days that tapes are used as work files for sort (disk
sort-work files are typical), but both tapes and disks are commonly used as
input and output files for sort, with disk sort-work files being essential
for the processing to operate.

No matter how fast, a main-memory sort routine is essentially unusable
for commercial data processing applications.  


Sam Drake / IBM Almaden Research Center 
Internet:  drake@ibm.com            BITNET:  DRAKE at ALMADEN
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