Re: Efficient io of arbitrary binary data.

[bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)]

In article <BRH.96Sep16002020@poplar111.cray.com>,
Brian Hanson <brh@poplar111.cray.com> wrote:
[stuff about sorting slices of strings]

I suggest you define a private type to represent your string-slice
pointers.  Each string pointer is represented as a low and high bound,
or low bound and length, or whatever, relative to the buffer.  You can
even use an access type pointing to the first character, plus a length,
if you make the buffer components aliased.

Then write your sorting routine in terms of this private data type.

Make sure the buffer is immutable (that is, don't allow modifications
while string-slice-pointers are in use).

- Bob