Discussion of large systems

[Dave McGuire]

On Nov 1, 2006, at 2:20 PM, Warren Wolfe wrote:
>     For myself, I like to compare algorithms.  There was a  
> WONDERFUL DOS
> program out there back in the early IBM PC days that took random data
> (or data pre-sorted in various ways) and sorted it using various
> algorithms, from bubble sort to heap sort to quicksort.  The cool  
> thing
> was that all the retrieval and display code was identical, so one  
> could
> literally WATCH the data being sorted, and the time it took was  
> affected
> ONLY by the efficiency of the sorting algorithm.  VERY instructional.
> This program was called, unimaginatively, SORTDEMO.  As computers got
> faster, it became pointless, as ALL the sorts were over about the same
> time they started, so one could no longer watch the data being
> re-arranged.  I just checked, and I still have that program.  Maybe  
> I'll
> set up an old PC just to run it... it's sort of like a cyber-lava- 
> lamp.

   Could you make that program available somewhere?  I'd love to see  
that.

                -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Cape Coral, FL