Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Christian Tanzer]

Tim Roberts <timr at probo.com> wrote:

> >Indeed, the point of teaching bubblesort is to teach *not to use*
> >bubblesort.
> 
> I would have said "...to teach WHEN not to use bubblesort."  There have
> been many times I needed to sort a list in some throaway utility when I
> knew the list was going to be limited in size.  I KNOW I can write a
> bubblesort or insertion sort and get it right.  I'd have to look up and
> debug a quicksort or a heapsort.

Read `WHEN not to use bubblesort' as `not ever'.

If your really have to implement a simple sort function yourself, a
straight insertion sort beats bubblesort any time and is actually
slightly simpler. The only thing speaking for bubblesort is a fancy
name.

-- 
Christian Tanzer                                         tanzer at swing.co.at
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