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Three Beautiful Quicksorts

Google TechTalks · talk · Watch on YouTube

Algorithms & data structuresSoftware architecture & design

What it is

Jon Bentley walks through three implementations of Hoare's Quicksort, from a dozen-line C function to a series of systematic code transformations that make the program ever simpler and more powerful. It is a Google Tech Talk on code elegance and program derivation.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters point to it as programming inspiration and as a source of Bentley's anecdotes about adding function by deleting code.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2010, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “there's a (also very interesting) Google Tech Talk”

    Bentley's Google Tech Talk on quicksort

    erre, 2013-05 · Recommendation · in “A regular expression matcher By Rob Pike and Brian Kernighan (2007)”

  2. “If you're looking for programming inspiration I love these videos”

    Programming inspiration through beautiful quicksort implementations

    tonym128, 2023-08 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Where do I find good code to read?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: quicksort, code elegance, algorithms, program transformation, jon bentley

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