I think this hits on a tenet of modern development, which is that if you find yourself actually implementing an algorithm, be it a sort, compression, crypto, or

I think this hits on a tenet of modern development, which is that if you find yourself actually implementing an algorithm, be it a sort, compression, crypto, or whatever, you're probably programming badly. That's not to say that your implementation won't work, but that there's already a library that does it and a well-worn design pattern that takes advantage of it, and you can find both of those in a few minutes on google / stackoverflow. Edit: I am in no way saying you shouldn't try to understand the algorithm. Coding it yourself is fine exercise for a rainy Sunday morning, but it's (usually) not the best way to do your day job.