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Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents
From: |
Frederik Eaton |
Subject: |
Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents |
Date: |
Sun, 29 May 2005 22:08:54 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.9i |
On Wed, May 25, 2005 at 10:58:41AM +0100, James Youngman wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2005 at 09:55:35AM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
>
> > That way, you could use, e.g.:
> >
> > sort -k 2,2 -k R
> >
> > which would mean "sort by the 2nd field, but if there are ties then
> > sort the ties randomly". "sort -R" would be short for "sort -k R".
>
> Perhaps this approach avoids the problems that were discussed earlier
> regarding expectations about lines with identical keys "shuffling"
> together.
I hope it is agreed that the conclusion that was reached earlier was
that both behaviors - identical keys shuffling *together* vs. *apart*
- would be useful in different situations. We came up with a number of
situations in which one behavior or the other was necessary, and we
didn't really come up with any other ideas for useful behaviors.
I think we have yet to consider other ways of getting these two
behaviors, however. For instance, "-s" could be seen as an instruction
to "last of all, sort by the input row number". But if we implement
randomization as "sort by hash of keys" - for a "together" shuffle -
then including input row number in this hash would get the contrasting
above behavior that Paul Eggert is suggesting - the "apart" shuffle.
So with a rephrasing of the "-s" option description, it might make
sense for "-R" to indicate the "together" behavior and "-Rs" to
indicate the "apart" behavior. In this case "-s" wouldn't mean
"stable" so much as "depends on input ordering". I don't know if this
is sensible. Anyway, here is the end of the last thread:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2005-02/msg00005.html
Frederik
- new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Davis Houlton, 2005/05/21
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, James Youngman, 2005/05/23
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Frederik Eaton, 2005/05/25
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Davis Houlton, 2005/05/24
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Frederik Eaton, 2005/05/30
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Davis Houlton, 2005/05/30
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Frederik Eaton, 2005/05/30
- Re: new coreutil? shuffle - randomize file contents, Davis Houlton, 2005/05/31