On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 9:27 AM, Diez B. Roggisch <de...@nospam.web.de> wrote: > Stefan Behnel wrote: >> Robert P. J. Day, 15.11.2009 15:44: >> Now, all that's left to do is write a prime number generator (a random >> number generator will do, too, but writing a good one isn't easy), run it >> repeatedly in a loop, and check if the returned number is 7919. Once it >> compares equal, you can print the result and you're done. > > That reminds me of the only algorithm I really invented myself: debil sort.
There's prior art for this algorithm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogosort > It goes like this: > > L = <list of comparable items> > > while not sorted(L): > p = generate_random_permutation(len(L)) > L = apply_permutation(L, p) > > print L > > > Great algorithm. Actually works. And the saddest thing: somebody out there > certainly has written something like that by accident... I've spotted > sorting in O(n^3) (with non-deterministic exceptional termination > conditions) already in the wild. Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list