[% setvar title C<sort> algorithm to be selectable at compile time %]
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<a name='TITLE'></a><h1>TITLE</h1>
<p><code>sort</code> algorithm to be selectable at compile time</p>
<a name='VERSION'></a><h1>VERSION</h1>
<pre>  Maintainer: Simon Cozens &lt;<a href='mailto:simon@brecon.co.uk'>simon@brecon.co.uk</a>&gt;
  Date: 25 Sep 2000
  Mailing List: <a href='mailto:perl6-internals@perl.org'>perl6-internals@perl.org</a>
  Number: 304
  Version: 1
  Status: Developing</pre>
<a name='ABSTRACT'></a><h1>ABSTRACT</h1>
<p>Quicksort and mergesort both have their uses. Let the user choose which
Perl uses.</p>
<a name='DESCRIPTION'></a><h1>DESCRIPTION</h1>
<p>While this RFC is ostensibly to allow the user to say something like
this:</p>
<pre>    { 
        use sort 'quick';
        @array2 = sort @array;
    }
    use sort 'merge';
    ...</pre>
<p>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 <code>sort</code>.</p>
<a name='IMPLEMENTATION'></a><h1>IMPLEMENTATION</h1>
<p>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.</p>
<a name='REFERENCES'></a><h1>REFERENCES</h1>
<p>None.</p>
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