Re: Length-unaware sorting algorithm

["Soni L." <fakedme@...>]

On 25/08/16 10:46 PM, Tim Hume wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2016, Soni L. wrote:
>
> > On 25/08/16 10:37 PM, Tim Hume wrote:
> > >  On Thu, 25 Aug 2016, Soni L. wrote:
> > >
> > > >  Heapsort assumes there is a length. Insertion sort is just bad, 
> > > nowhere >  near quicksort, and it also iterates, effectively 
> > > calculating a length.
> > >
> > >  Maybe you can describe the problem you are trying to solve with a 
> > > bit more
> > >  context? That might make it easier to provide suggestions.
> > >
> > >  Cheers,
> > >
> > >  Tim.
> >
> > I wanna sort a Lua table without a concept of length.
>
> I guess the question is why do you want to sort the table without the 
> concept of length? Is there some reason you don't know the length of 
> the table?
>
> Sorry if I don't quite understand. I'm not a computer scientist (I'm a 
> meteorologist) - and am mostly self taught when it comes to 
> programming ...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim.

Lua doesn't have a concept of length.

# is effectively undefined. __len is a thing. ipairs() stops on the 
first nil and respects __index. etc.

This is where not following a concept of length would shine. A 
lengthless sorting algorithm would be perfect for Lua.

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