Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!convex!killer!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: ultra!shj@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Steve Jay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Booster Ferdonic Sort
Message-ID: <2361@kalliope.rice.edu>
Date: 16 Dec 88 19:55:05 GMT
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Original-Date: Fri, 9 Dec 88 14:28:33 PST
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cvalcour@fester.prime.com (Chris Valcourt):
>  Also - has anyone ever seen the algorithm for a Booster Ferdonic Sort.

I suspect what's desired here is a "boustrophedonic" sort.  Boustrophedon
is defined in my dictionary as:

  [Gk boustrouphedon, adv., lit., turning like oxen in plowing]: of
  or relating to the writing of alternate lines in opposite directions.

I'm not up on sort algorithms, but I think this may hark back to the days
of sorting with scratch files on mag tapes, where reading a file
backwards, using reverse read on the drive, could save time over waiting
for the drive to rewind.  I have no idea if this has any applicability to
modern sorting methods.

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