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From: trt@rti.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: sorting (qsort)
Message-ID: <1871@rti.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Nov-87 15:42:31 EST
Article-I.D.: rti.1871
Posted: Tue Nov 24 15:42:31 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Nov-87 05:07:18 EST
References: <10491@brl-adm.ARPA> <265@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC
Lines: 18
Summary: Put your code where your mouth is.

In article <265@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>, ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
> In article <10491@brl-adm.ARPA>, bard@THEORY.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bard Bloom)
> replied to my question about the wide-spread (mis)use of "quick"sort.
> He starts by saying that
> > Quicksort -- if you code it just right -- has a very nice inner loop:
> This is wildly, ludicrously, hilariously IRRELEVANT to generic sorting
> algorithms.  What do I mean by a "generic" sorting algorithm?  I mean
> one like the qsort() function in the ANSCI C draft ...

Someone such as ok@quintus, who has coded mergesort on a variety of machines
in a variety of languages, should find writing a qsort()-like function
implemented with mergesort a simple exercise.
So show us, don't just tell us, what fools we have been:

	POST A "GENERIC" SORTING FUNCTION IMPLEMENTED WITH MERGESORT

That will benefit mankind far more than volleys of "mine is quicker than yours".
	Tom Truscott