inconsistent definition of "sort" (and what about stability?)
Subject: inconsistent definition of "sort" (and what about stability?)
From: Steve Haflich
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:32:03 -0800
Raymond Toy <toy.raymond at gmail.com> wrote:
(4) Use cl:stable-sort. (Perhaps that's what (1) is saying.)
Certainly, but that addresses only one of the Kullmann's concerns. The
guaranteed behavior with a sort function that provides only partial
ordering is still effectively defined by the ANS, not the Maxima dos.
This dependency of Maxima on ANSI CL might be seen as a deficiency in
Maxima, but I propose that (where it can be) it is a useful partitioning
of semantics. Maxima was first defined more than 40 years ago on a Lisp
with irrational semantics. The Lisp community learned a lot between
that time and the specification of ANSI CL (a little less than 20 years
ago) and I propose that where ANSI CL semantics do not impinge on
Maxima's focus on symbolic mathematics, ANSI CL semantics should be
adopted. It simplifies the total universe.