Bug in timsort!?
Sturla Molden
sturla.molden at gmail.com
Wed Feb 25 08:58:31 EST 2015
On 24/02/15 22:34, Roy Smith wrote:
> http://envisage-project.eu/proving-android-java-and-python-sorting-algorithm-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it/
>
This is awful. It is broken for arrays longer than 2**49 elements. With
8 bytes per PyObject* pointer this is >4096 terabytes of RAM. I don't
see how we can fix this in time.
Oh yes, and they mention that TimSort is used on billions of devices due
to Android mobile phones. This is clearly very relevant for mobile
phones. Next thing you know your litte Samsung Galaxy with more than
4096 terabytes breaks down from a stack overflow in TimSort.
Sturla
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