From ...
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Subject: Re: binary search?
Date: 1999/03/10
Message-ID: <3130078479648733@naggum.no>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 453472001
References: <36E31DBC.BC03C9E7@iname.com> <87vhgc6a44.fsf@pc-hrvoje.srce.hr> <lwzp5n9ibs.fsf@copernico.parades.rm.cnr.it> <m33e3ed9cy.fsf@eho.eaglets.com> <3130013677827179@naggum.no> <m2ww0qp1zj.fsf@sophia.axel.nom> <3130021426931539@naggum.no> <m2r9qxpnx4.fsf@sophia.axel.nom>
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Organization: Naggum Software; +47 8800 8879; http://www.naggum.no
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp

* Johan Kullstam <kullstam@ne.mediaone.net>
| how does a fill pointer let you *insert* new items to the *middle* of
| a vector?

  you provided us with a sample argument, not the definitive argument that
  I asked Sam Steingold to provide, and I answered you with another sample
  argument to show that your sample argument was not the definitive
  argument I was looking for.  why do you need to defend yourself?

| i was assuming that you would want to maintain the list in a sorted state
| in order to apply a binary sort to it.

  as you can see, your assumptions spawned your answer, and my assumptions
  spawned mine.  since I didn't ask you, but Sam Steingold, I could frankly
  not care _less_ whether you think your assumptions are better than mine.

| i suppose you could fill and then shift everything over with a copy.  or
| have i failed to completely grasp the full power of the fill-pointer?

  I think there are several things you have failed to grasp, but I can't
  say whether the fill-pointer is among them or not.  however, with this:

| this was never meant to be serious.  ...  i don't think sam was
| completeyl serious either.

  you show that you failed _utterly_ to understand my question to Sam.

| it's just a fit of whimsy to see if it were any way possible to justify
| binary searching a list.

  I didn't know you controlled Sam Steingold and know what he thinks, what
  motivates him, and how he will react.  I still doubt that you do.

  the useless opinions and generally silly responses from Johan Kullstam
  having been noted, I would like to ask Sam to answer the question, as I
  happen to believe that one might sometimes want to use a list instead of
  a vector, depending on a host of circumstances, just as I tried to show
  that one might want to use a vector where the standard idiom is to use a
  list.  I can think of several algorithms that usefully might delay
  representational issues, but no applications of such algorithms.  Sam?

#:Erik