| slovo | definícia |
bogo-sort
(foldoc) | bogo-sort
monkey sort
/boh"goh-sort"/ (Or "stupid-sort") The
archetypical perversely awful algorithm (as opposed to
bubble sort, which is merely the generic *bad* algorithm).
Bogo-sort is equivalent to repeatedly throwing a deck of cards
in the air, picking them up at random, and then testing
whether they are in order. It serves as a sort of canonical
example of awfulness. Looking at a program and seeing a dumb
algorithm, one might say "Oh, I see, this program uses
bogo-sort."
Also known as "monkey sort" after the {Infinite Monkey
Theorem}.
Compare brute force, Lasherism.
An implementation (http://stdout.org/~adam/psort).
[Jargon File]
(2002-04-07)
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bogo-sort
(jargon) | bogo-sort
/boh`goh·sort'/, n.
(var.: stupid-sort) The archetypical perversely awful algorithm (as opposed
to bubble sort, which is merely the generic bad algorithm). Bogo-sort is
equivalent to repeatedly throwing a deck of cards in the air, picking them
up at random, and then testing whether they are in order. It serves as a
sort of canonical example of awfulness. Looking at a program and seeing a
dumb algorithm, one might say “Oh, I see, this program uses bogo-sort.”
Esp. appropriate for algorithms with factorial or super-exponential running
time in the average case and probabilistically infinite worst-case running
time. Compare bogus, brute force.
A spectacular variant of bogo-sort has been proposed which has the
interesting property that, if the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum
mechanics is true, it can sort an arbitrarily large array in linear time.
(In the Many-Worlds model, the result of any quantum action is to split the
universe-before into a sheaf of universes-after, one for each possible way
the state vector can collapse; in any one of the universes-after the result
appears random.) The steps are: 1. Permute the array randomly using a
quantum process, 2. If the array is not sorted, destroy the universe
(checking that the list is sorted requires O(n) time). Implementation of
step 2 is left as an exercise for the reader.
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