O(n^2) is bad - can it be fixed?

[Isaac To Kar Keung]

>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Peters <tim.one at home.com> writes:

  Tim> My assumption was that he's running on a box where realloc
  Tim> eventually puts giant things into their own mmap'ed segment.

Actually, on Debian GNU/Linux 2.4.4 under i386.

  Tim> This kind of programming can definitely kill you across platforms,
  Tim> though, and, e.g., Win95 isn't so slick with just one list growing
  Tim> forever.

So does it mean that you've tried that in Win95 and found it slowing down as
the number grows?

if like_off_topic:

    Tim> Ah, but Isaac (To?  Kar?  what do you call a man with four names
    Tim> <wink>?) ...

    Name mangling is an unsolvable problem. ;p Most Chinese names consist of
    two to four Chinese characters, one or two of which is the surname, one
    or two is the first name.  For me, "Kar-Keung" is the first name, "To"
    is the family name.  But most foreigners have difficulty pronouncing
    Chinese characters accurately, so it is customary to add a Western name.
    Without that strange things can happen, e.g., if I don't put "Isaac"
    first, I'll probably be called "Kar", which is half of my first name.
    Even worse is that for most people, all siblings with the same sex get
    the same Chinese character as the first part of their first name.

    The difficulty of locating last names is long known, which is why you'll
    see registration forms of international conferences asking you "What's
    your last name" and "What's your first name" instead of simply "What's
    your name".

    The Chinese naming system is not really complicated.  In many countries
    multiple first and last names, parts of them inherits from the names of
    other family members.

Regards,
Isaac.