Use a recursive divide-and-conquer algorithm, in the style
   suggested by Knuth volume 3 (2nd edition), exercise 5.2.4-23.  Use
   the optimization suggested by exercise 5.2.4-10; this requires room
   for only 1.5*N lines, rather than the usual 2*N lines.  Knuth
   writes that this memory optimization was originally published by
   D. A. Bell, Comp J. 1 (1958), 75.

I suspect this line originates from the Wikipedia entry for TimSort with the line:

"Timsort has been Python's standard sorting algorithm since version 2.3. It is also used to sort arrays of non-primitive type in Java SE 7,[3] on the Android platform,[4] and in GNU Octave."

Notice how the order of Python, Java, Android, and GNU is the same? My tentative hypothesis is that "Octave" was dropped, and that "GNU" here means something more like "in the GNU project."

Also, the author uses a time complexity table with Ω(), Θ(), and O() notations, but suggests "To learn about Big O notation", go to another hackernoon article which only talks about O() and not big omega or big theta notations.