VisualSort
Languages and libraries
sorting algorithm visualizer
SHOW HN2011
How HN took it
9 positive, 29 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 7 critical, out of 46 comments about the project. Thread score -0.01.
Idea: 3 for, 3 againstExecution: 2 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Great for teaching sorting visually
From 2 comments
This is fantastic for teaching sorting algorithms visually. I'm going to see if I can forward this to my former professors and teachers.
oacgnol on HNIt's fantastic. I don't know CoffeeScript so all I did was compare the pre-written ones to each other and see if they did what I expected them to do, but it's a nice visual…
jc4p on HN
Fun to write custom sorts
From 2 comments
Yay. My first program in CoffeScript. It was fun to implement algorithm of which I only vaguely remembered how it worked. Details bit me few times before I got it working and…
scotty79 on HNHad fun writing a gnome-sort in a minute or two: ``` pos = 1 while pos < VA.length if (VA.gte(pos, pos-1)) pos++ else VA.swap(pos, pos-1) if (pos > 1) pos-- else pos++ ```
SeoxyS on HN
Objections
Quicksort uses poor pivot choice
From 2 comments
The quicksort implementation is incorrect. The code simply picking the left-most element as the pivot, and as a result it becomes pathologically slow for nearly-sorted array --…
HardyLeung on HNThat's still a quicksort - it always has n^2 as its worst case I thought? If you pick the wrong pivot each time.
cschneid on HN
Neon yellow color is painful to view
From 1 comment
It's fantastic. I don't know CoffeeScript so all I did was compare the pre-written ones to each other and see if they did what I expected them to do, but it's a nice visual…
jc4p on HN
Requests
Add cache and branch behaviour simulation
From 2 comments
I love the stats on the side. Knowing how many comparisons and swaps occur really shows the complexity of the algorithms. And to segue into my own area of interest with sorting,…
pbiggar on HNYeah, I can see that. A big problem is that the set sizes where cache effects start to come into effect are much larger than the sizes you're modelling. A level 1 cache is going…
pbiggar on HN
Allow values outside 1..length and duplicates
From 1 comment
Very neat, but here's a couple of additions I'd like to see: 1. Allow for the array to contain values outside of the range of [1..length]. Ideally, allow for duplicate values as…
eridius on HN
Add shuffle function
From 1 comment
Needs a shuffle() function - can't bogosort without it.
ilikejam on HN
Questions
How is stack size or memory measured?
From 1 comment
This might be a dumb question, but can you add numbers about the size of the stack to the right-side statistics? I.e. How many variables and calls to functions are stored in…
DrHankPym on HN
Why does nothing display on infinite loops?
From 2 comments
>Nothing will display if there is an infinite loop. Did someone solve the halting problem while I wasn't looking?
akavi on HNI assume it just computes every step, and then displays them all.
kingkilr on HN
Alternatives named
Sorting-algorithms.com visualizations
From 1 comment
This is a good set of sorting visualisations too, presented more compactly (but not customisable): http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/
rnm on HN
Corte.si sorting visualisations
From 1 comment
Nice, though I think static visualizations illustrate the examples more quickly and are easier to compare: http://corte.si/posts/code/visualisingsorting/index.html I also love…
mbostock on HN
Wikipedia sorting animations
From 1 comment
Wikipedia has similar animations for some of its articles about sorting algorithms, e.g.: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Quicksort
cpeterso on HN