NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/edu/1498

Text File | 1992-09-02 | 1.8 KB | 37 lines

Newsgroups: comp.edu
Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!cs.mu.OZ.AU!munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU!fjh
From: [e-mail] (Fergus James HENDERSON)
Subject: Re: Scientists as Programmers (was Re: Small Language Wanted)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
References: <[e-mail]> <1992Aug31.144045.11416@hubcap. <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 23:37:09 GMT
Lines: 25

[e-mail] (Dik T. Winter) writes:

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tony Davie) writes:
> > In addition, many of the best non-numerical algorithms seem to be neglected.
> > Bubble sort STILL seems to be the most used sorting method, for instance.
>
>Surprise, also Bubble sort has its place!  I once did code for the
>singular value decomposition.  At the end of the routine the singular
>values are sorted (because most people expect this).  I deliberately
>chose Bubble sort because the code is short.  That its order is n^2
>is not important as the order of the decomposition is n^3 for square
>matrices.  It would be silly to invest time to implement better sorting
>methods at that place.

It would be silly to invest time in implementing ANY sorting method!
A much simpler, easier, and usually more efficient method is to simply
call the sort routine in the standard library... <flame bait follows>
or don't you Science types know anything about code re-use?
<end flame bait> ;-)

--
Fergus Henderson             [e-mail]
This .signature virus is a self-referential statement that is true - but
you will only be able to consistently believe it if you copy it to your own
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