Re: A strange problem with table.sort()

[Alen Ladavac <alenl-ml@...>]

Ketmar wrote:

I have just recalled an interesting fact! Quite some time ago, I wrote
a sorting function for a framework we use internally, and have had a
similar design issue - a comparator function that must return false on
equal objects! Here is excerpt from my old documentation for it:

>> This function must return TRUE _iff_ eA comes after eB in the order
>> that you wish to sort by. (E.g. it would be the same as operator>()
>> for ascending sort of numbers.) Note that the relation must not be
>> reflexive, i.e. IsGT(x,x) must be FALSE, otherwise the algorithm
>> may lock up.

It very decidedly specifies that same problem, yet doesn't seem much
longer than the one from the Lua docs:

>> If comp is given, then it must be a function that receives two
>> table elements, and returns true when the first is less than the
>> second (so that not comp(a[i+1],a[i]) will be true after the sort).
>> If comp is not given, then the standard Lua operator < is used
>> instead.

> i think that Lua manual is close toperfection: it is small, easily
> understandable and complete.

I agree with this, and I'd like it to be even closer to perfection.
Don't want to be too pushy, though, so I'll leave it at this...

Cheers,
Alen