Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:50 AM,

A student writes:



	 Hello Dr. Pat,



If it is all the same to you, I prefer Dr. Patt.  ...although you are not the 
first to misspell my very-hard-to-spell last name.  



	 just quick quesiton on the lab, for a student to have an A , the grade 
	 must be top 4 and have a score of 85 or above, so is it easier to sort 
	 the numbers you give us in order first?



I think it would be unnecessarily difficult to do it without sorting the 
numbers first.  ...and very easy to do it if you sort the numbers first.



	 I am just having trouble trying to visualize how I am going to check 
	 if it is top 4 out of 16, any hints?



Yes, I have a big hint.  Re-read your message to me.



	 Would a bubble sort algorithm be necessary for this lab?



Necessary?  Of course not.  There must be a hundred different ways to sort a 
collection of numbers.  Bubble sort is 1.  Heap sort is another.  
Quicksort is a third.

In class tomorrow, I will show you at least one very simple sorting algorithm.

There is a very famous book, The Art of Computer Programming, by Donald E.
Knuth, one of the giants int he field.  Volume 3 contains about 300 pages of 
different sorting algorithms, far beyond what I think you need to learn in EE 
306.  But it would be nice if you did learn one sorting algorithm.

I will spend a few minutes in class tomorrow teaching you a sorting algorithm 
that many (most?) of you have used many times already: the algorithm you use 
when you sort a "hand" in a card game like bridge or poker, for example.
 
Good luck with this programming assignment.

Yale Patt