This and other RFCs are available on the web at
http://dev.perl.org/rfc/
=head1 TITLE
C<sort> algorithm to be selectable at compile time
=head1 VERSION
Maintainer: Simon Cozens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 25 Sep 2000
Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Number: 304
Version: 1
Status: Developing
=head1 ABSTRACT
Quicksort and mergesort both have their uses. Let the user choose which
Perl uses.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
While this RFC is ostensibly to allow the user to say something like
this:
{
use sort 'quick';
@array2 = sort @array;
}
use sort 'merge';
...
the real benefit comes when the code is being compiled into a standalone
executable; given sufficient magic, the compiler can analyze the
expected data flow and guess what the most suitable sort algorithm
should be for each instance of C<sort>.
=head1 IMPLEMENTATION
Provide multiple sort algorithms, and have a pragma select which Perl
uses; when a program is being compiled, analyze the data and
heuristically select the better algorithm if possible.
=head1 REFERENCES
None.
