Three Beautiful Quicksorts
Google TechTalks2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2010–2023
talk · intermediate · evergreen · 2010–2023 on HN
Jon Bentley walks through three implementations of Hoare's Quicksort, from a dozen-line C function to a series of systematic code transformations that make the program ever simpler and more powerful. It is a Google Tech Talk on code elegance and program deriv…
HN commenters point to it as programming inspiration and as a source of Bentley's anecdotes about adding function by deleting code.
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3 comments from Hacker News
I'm sorry these are videos, but your question made me think of these. If you're looking for programming inspiration I love these videos Jon Bentley - Three Beautiful Quicksorts ▶ this video Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle link
Ah, and Jon Bentley's chapter about quicksort, along whose lines there's a (also very interesting) Google Tech Talk: ▶ this video
I'm reminded of this Google Tech Talk, where the speaker (Jon Bentley) refers to a colleague's praise of someone who "adds function by deleting code": ▶ this video Edit: Fixed quote