Bogosort (was: old threaded languages, was Re: Symbolics)

It depends a lot on the algorithm you use in the sort, of course :-). I believe it's in _Numerical Recipes_ that possibly the worst sort algorithm of all is disucssued: "Bogosort": 1. Take the list of numbers you want to sort. 2. Randomly reorganize them. 3. Check to see if they're sorted. If not, go back to step 2. This is a Order(n*factorial(n)) algorithm. I've tried, but I've been unable to come up with anything worse. For your example of 1000 numbers, it'd take (assuming that each operation takes a microsecond) about 10^2554 years to complete. I think the only reason they discuss Bogosort is to emphasize that just because Bubble Sort is the example used in lots of introductory classes, that doesn't mean that you should ever actually use it for anything :-). (Pre-RT-11 5.7 DIR/SORT notwithstanding, of course!) -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927