Re:Teenage Haskell
by mpweiher on Sunday June 29, 2014 @03:39AM
(#7960606)
The problem with the "canonical" Haskell Quicksort implementation is that it is utter tosh.
The whole point of Quicksort is being a fast and in-place sort. That's its entire reason for being (the name kinda gives it away). An algorithm that's slow and not in place is not Quicksort and not "the essence" of Quicksort either. It's some other sort ("Slowsort"?) loosely inspired by a cursory reading of Qicksort and not understanding what Quicksort is about and why it is "quick".
The whole thing is somewhat typical though: "We have discovered that the essence of <well-known-thing> is <completely-different-thing>". No, you have discovered a mapping function from <well-known-thing> to <completely-different-thing> That's not the same as "the essence".
The whole point of Quicksort is being a fast and in-place sort. That's its entire reason for being (the name kinda gives it away). An algorithm that's slow and not in place is not Quicksort and not "the essence" of Quicksort either. It's some other sort ("Slowsort"?) loosely inspired by a cursory reading of Qicksort and not understanding what Quicksort is about and why it is "quick".
The whole thing is somewhat typical though: "We have discovered that the essence of <well-known-thing> is <completely-different-thing>". No, you have discovered a mapping function from <well-known-thing> to <completely-different-thing> That's not the same as "the essence".