Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Delaney, Timothy]

> >Indeed, the point of teaching bubblesort is to teach *not to use*
> >bubblesort.
> 
> I would have said "...to teach WHEN not to use bubblesort."  
> There have
> been many times I needed to sort a list in some throaway 
> utility when I
> knew the list was going to be limited in size.  I KNOW I can write a
> bubblesort or insertion sort and get it right.  I'd have to 
> look up and debug a quicksort or a heapsort.

You can always write an insertion sort and get it right. You can always
write a bubble sort and get it right. The code is very similar in length.
Conceptually, an insertion sort is more logical (despite this, *everyone*
I've known, including myself, wrote a bubble sort as their first ever sort -
I wonder why?).

Given these facts, you still should *not* use a bubble sort, as a insertion
sort is much more efficient.

Nonetheless, I concede the point. *When* not to use a bubble sort, which is
any time you remember that an insertion or better sort exists.

Tim Delaney