Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site spuxll.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!whuxle!spuxll!ech From: ech@spuxll.UUCP (Ned Horvath) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: Quicksort, bubble sort Message-ID: <495@spuxll.UUCP> Date: Tue, 12-Jun-84 17:27:41 EDT Article-I.D.: spuxll.495 Posted: Tue Jun 12 17:27:41 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 06:43:49 EDT References: <7471@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems, South Plainfield NJ Lines: 9 A brief note on "quickersort" (see qsort(3)): it differs from quicksort only in that it picks a "trial median" from the center of the list rather than from one end. It has n^2 behavior about as often as quicksort, but it is much harder to find the right conditions "in real life." In particular, it runs REAL fast on a sorted list (precisely where quicksort blows up). See Knuth v. 3 for more discussion about sorting than you thought was possible. =Ned=