Need Something Sorted? Sleep on It!
A decade ago I first presented a lightning talk entitled Cool Code. This short talk evolved into a fu ll talk whose iterations I presented over the next half decade. The focus? Code that, for some reason or other, can be considered cool. For example, code that has played a significant role in historical events, such as the source for the Apollo Guidance Computer. Or code that is audacious — if not seemingly impossible — given its constraints, such as David Horne’s 1K chess. There is code that is both simple and profound, such as Peter Norvig’s fits-on-a-slide spelling corrector. And code that demonstrates ingenuity and humour, such as Yusuke Endoh’s Qlobe.
Leaving aside its content for a moment, one of the most interesting things about the talk was its stone-soup nature. Whenever and wherever I gave it, I would usually receive at least one suggestion for more code to include. This drove the talk’s evolution over the years. Summed across all its variations, there’s probably a half-day’s worth of material in total.
The first full-length version of the talk I presented was at JavaZone 2011. Afterwards, someone came up to me and asked, “Have you come across sleep sort?” I hadn’t. “You should look it up. I think you might enjoy it.” I did. And I did.
