Speaking of the slowest sorting algorithm... I came up with a really fast sorting algorithm, and in most cases it''s faster than all previous ones. Being only a high school student though, I have no clue where to submit it. I''ve had this sorting algorithm for at least half a year now, and I''m still lost as to where to give it to. My parents tried to milk money with it, but after learning the hard way (letting them hire lawyers to find somewhere to sell it to, of course, which is nowhere... they spent quite a bit of money on them) that they can''t get money out of a sorting algorithm, they''ve been quite less cooperative. My objective is to allow people to use it freely, while safely making a record that I am the original (I hope) author of it, so that I can write about it in resumes and the such. I tried talking to my math teacher, who is the comp sci department head at one of the universities here, but I don''t know how trustable he is, as is any prof... I tried getting a software patent, but it costs $3000-25,000 USD, and... well... Canada''s poor, and so am I. Anybody know a good place to submit this thing? Thanks in advance

Well I told my comp sci teacher about it, and he calls it the ARaySort, because my name is Ray

I already made a sample program for it... So maybe it''d be safe to make a webpage for it and release it? I don''t know maybe I should try... But... "Trying is the first step towards failure." <- eek

Well I can''t tell you what type of variables it takes yet, but I can tell you it''s extremely fast. In many cases, even while considering Quicksort''s handicaps, it can be exponentially faster. In a lot of real-world applications, it can be hundreds of times faster.

Can you recommend some comp sci magazines and how I should talk to them?

Sure I''ll tell you when I get it publicized

Except you might want to mix it along with some other algorithms for something like that though.

If you have really invented a new sorting algorithm that is faster most of the time then anything so far that would be an incredible achievement. Unfortunately the prior art in sorting, is rather large . Chances are, someone has come up with the same idea you have.

If not however, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Comparison only based sorting cannot be faster than O(n logn). You can beat this by specializing the routine into something like bucket sort which is O(n + m) where m is the number of "buckets". I'm guessing this is something like what you've done, but if not, good for you!

Gary

[edited by - premandrake on April 23, 2002 4:23:33 AM]

Big-O right? I tried, but my math isn''t that good, and I''m not sure if I can even use big-o for my algorithm... It''s really an oddball

I searched around the net, and as far as I know, there aren''t any similar to mine, or that beat mine.

I''ll probably know for sure when I submit it somewhere though...

And ya I know it''d be a big deal if it really is the fastest... At least to profs it would