Sorting Algorithms — Boring Until You Add Sound

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."

Comments

Try it with people

[twoshortplanks]

It's always more fun to do this with real people (sort by height, for example). The London Perl Mongers tried this as a drinking game: You get enough people down the pub (or, in one this case, outside a bar in portugal during conference season) and apply booze. Then bubble sort them as a group (lots of shouting Stay! Switch!.) Add drinking penalties when people screw up the algorithm. You get the idea.

There's a video on the internet somewhere. Free pint to the first person to find it.

The sound of bubble sort

[Anonymous Coward]

That's strange. When I listen to the sound of bubble sort all I hear is one of my college professors threatening to hunt me down and kill me in my sleep if I ever use it.

Re:Sorting is a waste of time

[mea37]

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.