5 ms·
I had the same initial reaction, but the dictionary supports the idea that the everyday usage of sort means to group by category, not to order. I've probably ju
by o_nate 8y ago
I had the same initial reaction, but the dictionary supports the idea that the everyday usage of sort means to group by category, not to order. I've probably just been coding too long as well.
- outsidetheparty 8y agoYou’re right, it does! I wonder if the definition is going to drift towards “ordering” as computing becomes ever more ubiquitous, or if we’re just in a linguistic cul de sac by virtue of our profession...
- alanbernstein 8y agoAre you referring to a dictionary of word definitions? The kind that is structured as a list of words, ordered lexicographically? Where is the categorization in that?
- mort96 8y agoWhat do you mean? I agree that dictionaries are ordered and not categorized, but do dictionaries claim to be sorted?
- alanbernstein 8y agoI thought parent was using "the sortedness of dictionaries" as his argument, I now realize he meant "the dictionary definition of 'sort'".
- outsidetheparty 8y agoHe's referring to the dictionary definition of the word "sort". Dictionary.com has it as "to arrange according to sort, kind, or class; separate into sorts; classify". I looked it up in the OED too -- mostly because we have one and I don't get enough excuses to use its nifty little magnifying glass -- and it also supports the notion that it means by category, not by order. The general verb definition is "to arrange things according to kind or quality", and there's a separate definition for software: "sort: Computers: the action of arranging items of data in a prescribed sequence".