[naniwaduni]

Copying a convenient-looking one out of a CS book is how you end up with a bubble sort. Approximately nobody comes up with a bubble sort from scratch; it's obviously, gratuitously bad in a way that there's no practical reason to think of on your own. The sorts that people come up with without reference are usually insertion and selection sorts—those two were discovered before bubble sort.

[tedunangst]

Bubble sort occupies a weird space where people assume it's dumb and simple so it'll be the least code, but even insertion sort tends to beat it.

[naniwaduni]

I mean yeah, bubble sort is basically insertion sort but weirdly pessimized in a way that makes negative sense. Giving it a catchy name has probably been a net harm.

[anikan_vader]

Plenty of children come up with bubble sort as a sorting algorithm. It’s intuitive to go down the list swapping any pairs that happen to be in the wrong order.

[naniwaduni]

It's also very intuitive to pick out a misplaced item and put it in the right position. In the context of physical objects (e.g. playing cards), it's even more intuitive to come up with a (two-way) insertion sort than a bubble sort.

[pjmlp]

Only if they never managed beyond first chapter.