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Sorting Algorithms — Boring Until You Add Sound

Posted by Soulskill on from the bloop-bleep-bloop dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Anyone who's ever taken a programming course or tried to learn how to code out of a book will have come across sorting algorithms. Bubble, heap, merge — there's a long list of methods for sorting data. The subject matter is fairly dry. Thankfully, someone has found a way to not only make sorting more interesting, but easier to remember and understand, too."

4 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. No Quicksort? by gus+goose · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Feel like I'm complaining about a poll with a missing option, but, honestly ....:(

    gus

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    .. if only.
    1. Re:No Quicksort? by kvezach · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No thinking outside of the box -- no radix sort? Seriously!

  2. Shear Sort by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Shear Sort is one of my favorite sorts out there. Although you will need an orchestra to play it.

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. Re:Sorting is a waste of time by mea37 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you think all that time examining sorting algorithms was intended to teach you about sorting, then you indeed missed the point. Programming courses spend a lot of time on sorting because it is a common task that can be easily understood, but for which there are a lot of different algorithms with very different performance characteristics. The point is to teach algorithm analysis skills.

    Judging from the quality of code I encounter regularly, though, you're far from alone in failing to pick up that lesson.