🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <22...@unix.cis.pitt.edu> dt...@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate) writes:
>In article <1990Feb2.0...@cs.rochester.edu> k...@cs.rochester.edu writes:
>>The solution I came up with was to take the correct printout, overlay
>>it with the suspect printout, align the letters and hold both against
>>the light.  It worked.
>
>I love it!  "Analog software tools"!

The overlay technique is VERY useful!  It is even downward-compatible to documents
existing only in printed form.  And it doesn't even use electricity in daylight.

The _Scientific_American_ computer column (I forget its name at the time) discussed
some algorithms like that for sorting.  My favorite was the "Spaghetti Sort":
  1. cut dry spaghetti to lengths representing the values to sort
  2. grasp these lengths in your hand vertically over a flat surface
A constant-time sorting algorithm!

Then, there was also the "Volkswagen Sort":
  1. Get as many Volkswagen Bugs as there are values to sort
  2. Fill their gas tanks with amounts of gas proportional to the values to sort.
  3. Line them up, and start them running.
  4. The order in which they stop produces an ascending sort.

Any others like this?


Dan Ross			dr...@cs.wisc.edu	..!uwvax!cs.wisc.edu!dross