Re: [PATCH perl@6962] 2 more vms.c fix-ups and status

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perldelta.pod

diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod
index c8f2a58..f3608e9 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perldelta.pod
+++ b/pod/perldelta.pod
@@ -293,6 +293,17 @@ distribution.
 
 map() that changes the size of the list should now work faster.
 
+=item *
+ 
+sort() has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to the
+earlier quicksort.  For very small lists this may result in slightly
+slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be at least 20%.
+Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour of sort() is now
+better (in computer science terms it now runs in time O(N log N), as
+opposed to quicksorts Theta(N**2) worst-case run time behaviour), and
+that sort() is now stable (meaning that elements with identical keys
+will stay ordered as they were before the sort).
+
 =back
 
 =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements