Sam Schetterer wrote:
Would users care if I took quicksort and merge sort out of the library? They are already implemented by the stl.
I think you meant "standard library" when you wrote "stl". Your statement isn't correct. Neither "quicksort" (there's a qsort function that got inherited from C. That function neither needs to implement quicksort nor does it fit very well into the C++ standard library) nor "mergesort" are mentioned at any point in the C++ standard (there are merge operations, though. However, they aren't a complete sorting algorithm). Do not confuse the specific C++ implementation you are using with requirements from the standard. However, adding another quicksort imlpementation doesn't make much sense if it doesn't cover anything that isn't already covered by the specification of std::sort, std::stable_sort etc. Mergesort, OTOH, could be very interesting to have. Mergesort is a good choice for sorting large amounts of data on external storage. Among the parameters for that algorithm could be the point of a strategy switch, e.g. number of data elements that get sorted in memory (similar to switching from QS to some other algorihm for smaller sets.) Regards, m Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com