[Lazarus] Lazarus support for Sorting is completely inadequate.

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sun, 2 Dec 2012, Alexander Klenin wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 3:53 AM, Juha Manninen <juha.manninen62 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The default sort routine is quicksort and it works well in every situation.
>> It uses a compare function which returns -1, 0 or 1 depending on its parameters.
>> You need different compare functions, not different sort functions to
>> support the languages.
>> Mattias tried to explain it already.
>> There could also be other sort functions / algorithms like merge sort
>> or even bubble sort, but that is another issue.
>
> There are two independent issues here.
> First is a possible lack of Unicode collation support in Lazarus -- I
> am not sure about it,
> but I was under the impression that UTF8Compare provides such support.
> If I am wrong, then it is certainly a serious omission.
>
> The other is a lack of standard algorithm and data structures support.
> This is a most prominent factor behind the sharp decline of Pascal's relevancy
> as a teaching language.
> In fact, just this Friday I performed an informal presentation at the
> conference of
> top Russian teachers of informatics (it.mipt.ru/conference)
> The main topic was "Free Pascal is not dead, please do not abandon it yet".
>
> Recent addition of FCL-STL was a great move which promises some future
> for Pascal in education. It has many shortcomings, but is definitely a
> step in right direction,
> compared to the current mess. I hope it did not come too late.

Can we hope to see some patches that remedy these shortcomings ?

Some time ago, We received an alternative implementation of these 
generic classes, but since we do not use generics intensively, 
we're not really in the position to make well-founded decisions.
As a result, the new implementation is simply floating...

So, a maintainer for the FCL-STL generics classes would be welcome.

Michael.