[Year 12 SofDev] Algorithms - bubble sort, merge sort, and when it's not worth sorting at all

[Tyler, Simon J]

Actually, I think the interview might have got the "top secret" somewhat wrong, or exaggerated.
It took me a while to find any reference to it, but wikipedia cites a 1970 article by Knuth on Von Neumann's original 1945 merge sort algorithm. All work on computers was classified in 1945 due to its war connections, but since the words "TOP SECRET" were later erased from the manuscript, it can't have been considered too much of a secret. It's interesting to look at, since it was handwritten in a kind of EDVAC assembly language (although the code in the manuscript was incomplete). It is Von Neumann's first real foray into non-numeric computing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann#Computing
Von Neumann's First Computer Program, Knuth 1970: http://public.callutheran.edu/~reinhart/CSC521MSCS/Week5/KnuthVonNeumann.pdf

________________________________
From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] on behalf of Tyler, Simon J [tyler.simon.j at edumail.vic.gov.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 9 August 2016 8:37 PM
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Algorithms - bubble sort, merge sort, and when it's not worth sorting at all

Thanks for sharing this - there was lots of interesting stuff in that short snippet.
The reminder of Obama's critique of bubble sort was good, but the fact that merge sort was classified by the US military really stood out to me. It seems strange that such a basic algorithm could be classified. It's also a shame that neither algorithm are on the study design (although I did show them to my students, I didn't expect them to reproduce them)

Sorting is only worth doing if it will later save time searching is a good principle. The interviewee's book 'Algorithms to Live by: The Computer Science of Human Decisions' can stay on my Christmas "to read" list.

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From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] on behalf of Mark [mark at vceit.com]
Sent: Saturday, 30 July 2016 11:31 AM
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] Algorithms - bubble sort, merge sort, and when it's not worth sorting at all

A short and interesting radio snippet from the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p042yy8x

It raises the interesting point that sorting is only sometimes worth doing.


--

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>
http://vceit.com

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