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OK, but the OP's point was that academia is not simply some free-floating institution avoiding usefulness. Because some sorting algorithms were developed outsid
by ppseafield 8y ago
OK, but the OP's point was that academia is not simply some free-floating institution avoiding usefulness. Because some sorting algorithms were developed outside of a university doesn't contradict that.
Also both von Neumann and Hoare worked as professors. Von Neumann was a polymath and published plenty of academic papers. Hoare is still a professor. Are you implying that their work in academia had no value in developing those algorithms?
- eesmith 8y agoI think the comment in the essay was a gratuitous and needless dismissal of academic research. All modern improvements to sorting, including TimSort, have been influenced by academic research. I think the most commonly used sorting algorithm were made in the first days of computing, before CS was even established as a field, making the point irrelevant. People don't care to even know what algorithm they are using. How many know when they are using introsort, even when that was developed by an academic. I think your objection points out the needless specificity of the original claim. "Created in an academic laboratory" requires that the person be in an academic lab, thus excluding (say) academics who are on sabbatical at (say) a national lab. Since there were few academic laboratories in the first few decades of computers, it's rather pointless. While Hoare did go on to become a professor, if Tim Peters were to get a professorship, would that make a difference?