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From: hal@pur-phy (Hal Chambers)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Software Technology is NOT Primitive
Message-ID: <924@pur-phy>
Date: Thu, 29-Oct-87 07:23:18 EST
Article-I.D.: pur-phy.924
Posted: Thu Oct 29 07:23:18 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 04:16:19 EST
References: <3405@ece-csc.UUCP> <638@its63b.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: hal@newton.physics.purdue.edu.UUCP (Hal Chambers)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., W. Lafayette, IN
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Xref: mnetor comp.lang.misc:824 comp.software-eng:33

In article <4943@ncoast.UUCP> crds@ncoast.UUCP (Glenn A. Emelko) writes:

>... I can recall designing a
>sorting algorithm for a data management system which was very popular in the
>early '80s for a specific Z80 based computer, and then one day pulling out
>a copy of the "state of the art" data management/spread sheet program of '84,
>which ran on a 8088 based system, and benchmarking them against each other
>for about 20 different test cases
>and watching the Z80 based computer beat the 8088 based system 10 to 1 at
>WORST!...

>Glenn A. Emelko

This reminds me of a time about 10-12 years ago when I was using a program
which looked for new energy levels in an atom given a list of known levels
and a list of currently unclassified spectrum lines for that element.
This program generated huge lists of numbers which then had to be sorted
and then examined for matches.  The program ran the the CDC6600 here at
Purdue and took large amounts of time which meant: submit job wait till
next day for results.  I examined the sort routine which was written in
COMPASS (the CDC assembly language) for "speed".

What a revelation when I realized the algorithm used was a Bubble sort!!

I wrote a modified Shell-Metzner sort in FORTRAN and got a 30-fold
improvement.  Then I hand-compiled that subroutine into COMPASS and
got another factor of 3 improvement.  Those jobs now run in less than
8 sec. of processor time and turn around is essential immediate.

Hal Chambers