Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!byuvax!zebolskyd From: zebolskyd@yvax.byu.edu Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2 Subject: Quicksort vs. Heapsort Message-ID: <828zebolskyd@yvax.byu.edu> Date: 29 Sep 89 03:38:14 GMT Lines: 14 In <2033@ethz.UUCP>, Michael Rys writes: >In 1987 a guy called Carlson (I think) improved the Heapsort-Algorithm >by using a binary search for inserting into the sorted list. In this >way Heapsort is always faster than Quicksort for very larg n. It is interesting that it took until 1987 for somebody to make that improvement. I was watching a demonstration program for QuickBasic on the Macintosh that compares the various methods. The one they called a heap sort used a linear search to insert. I thought there was a mistake or bug, because a binary search would have been so much faster. But maybe it took a graphical display to make it obvious. Anybody who wants to see an entertaining graphical comparison of search algorithms should find a friend who has QuickBasic for their Mac. It is even in color on a Mac II. --Lyle D. Gunderson zebolskyd@yvax.byu.edu