Sorting list (maybe stupid)

[Delaney, Timothy]

> From: Tim Peters [mailto:tim.one at comcast.net]
> 
> [Delaney, Timothy]
> > ...
> > Personally, I think the implementation should be documented to
> > use a stable sort - presumably mergesort (stable, minimal number of
> > comparisons which is very important in Python).
> 
> Write a mergesort as fast and memory-efficient as the sort 
> we've got and we'll consider it.  I wasn't able to ...
> you'll find that mergesort doesn't have enough of an
> advantage there to make up for the speed it loses due to greater data
> movement.

I'm not willing in the slightest to dispute this ...

My preference for a stable sort as default is that it is the "least
surprising" result. But I don't see it as a wart that the implementation is
not stable.

Tim Delaney