[PD] To divide a number in random parts

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2011, Matt Barber wrote:

> This all sounds about right -- I made [list-shellsort] more as a 
> pedagogical exercise for my students

So, what is that supposed to teach them ?

> than as a model of speed or efficiency (I did a "quicksort" as well that 
> didn't end up in list-abs).

How did you achieve the quicksort ?

Why didn't it end up in list-abs ?

> but then it uses fewer of the list abstractions and is less of an 
> opportunity to show how the abstractions work "in action."

Don't you think that it would be better to show the list-abs for what they 
are good at, rather than for what they aren't ?

> And it's a good reminder for how slow list manipulations can be.

Ah, yes. But note that [list split] is O(1), which is the cool thing about 
pd's lists.

> one of the best exercises in constrained patching I've ever done, and 
> fun for proving that some things are actually possible in vanilla that 
> you think wouldn't be,

Yeah, people didn't think a pure-vanilla [list-drip] could be O(n) either. 
I made one and now it's the new [list-drip]. I didn't mean to actually 
encourage people to use list-abs though. I already had written [foreach] 
in C++ which is a lot easier to understand :

\class ForEach {
 	\constructor () {}
 	\decl 0 list (...) {for (int i=0; i<argc; i++) out[0](argv[i]);}
};
\end class {install("foreach",1,1);}

this basically just says : make a class that has an inlet 0 list method 
that takes every element and sends it through outlet 0. Then name this 
class [foreach] and make it have 1 inlet and 1 outlet.

Your [s2l] looked more desperate though. ;)

> Yet, I suspect that people go ahead and use [list-sort] all the time.

uh, who would do that ?

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| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC