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by hnisoss 495 days ago
its only ok if your name is Tim?
1 comments

Perhaps ;-) I'm the "Tim" in "timsort". The name was an inside joke. I'm not a self-promoter, and never have been. As the so-called "Zen of Python" author, I thought it would be funny to pick a name I'd never pick ;-)

CPython had a unique (in my experience) combination of cheap data movement (only pointer swaps) and very expensive comparisons. That's what I was aiming at. I never publicized it, never wrote about it outside the CPython repo, and never thought I'd hear about it again.

Of course I'm pleased it found wider use, but that took my wholly by surprise. If I had it to do over again, I would probably have named it, say, gallopsort.

If this new sort catches on, Jesse should rename it before it's too late ;-)

I think its an excellent name mr.Tim haha, I m glad it stuck. Always reminds me of effbot (rip) and others. It felt more personal and memorable than gallopsort would.