Robert I. Eachus (eachus@spectre.mitre.org) wrote:


:     I managed to do the "fun" experiment once.  Take three students
: and have them learn Quicksort, Heapsort, and Bubblesort on "small"

Why do people try and teach students Bubblesort? It may be an interlectually
interesting exercise but it is of no use. An insertion sort is simpler and at
least as fast as a bubble sort. For many practical programing problems an
insertion sort is a sensible solution, it is very compact and for small
datasets as fast as anything (Many quicksort implementations switch to
insertion sort for less than about 7 items). The number of times I have
had to redirect graduates who have tried to write a small sort using Bubblesort
(because it was the simplest sort they were taught) or Quicksort (because they
have been taught it is faster in all cases).


--
Stephen Baynes                              baynes@ukpsshp1.serigate.philips.nl
Philips Semiconductors Ltd
Southampton                                 My views are my own.
United Kingdom
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