Barebones sort algorithm

Question

I have been asked to make a simple sort aglorithm to sort a random series of 6 numbers into numerical order. However, I have been asked to do this using Barebones-a theoretical language put forward in the book Computer Science, an Overview.

Some information on the language can be found here.

Just to clarify, I am a student teacher and have been doing anaysis on "mini-programing languages" and their uses in a teaching environment. I suggested to my tutor that I look at barebones (the language) and asked what sort of exmaple program I should write. He suggested a simple sort algorithm. Now since looking at the language I can't understand how I can do this without using arrays and if statements.

The code to swap the value of variables would be

while a not 0 do;
    incr Aux1;
    decr a;
end;
while b not 0 do;
    incr Aux2
    decr b
end;
while Aux1 not 0 do;
    incr a;
    decr Aux1;
end;
while Aux2 not 0 do;
    incr b;
    decr Aux2;
end;

However, the language does not provide < or > operators.

What could I use as a workaround?

I see the language has no array. Not even an if statement! I guess that whoever asked you to do this wanted you to work hard to understand the essence of computation. I would suggest you edit your question adding your attempts to the exercise — Remo.D
– Remo.D, Commented Apr 16, 2010 at 15:14
My workflow: 1. retag; 2. read what meta says about it. Meh. — Raphaël Saint-Pierre
– Raphaël Saint-Pierre, Commented Apr 16, 2010 at 15:31

Svante · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-16 16:32:20Z

5

Oh, come on, start thinking about the problem!

What's an array? A list of variables.

So Barebones doesn't have an if statement? It's got while loops.

Get on with your homework.

edited Apr 16, 2010 at 16:32

Svante

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answered Apr 16, 2010 at 16:04

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Comments

Aryabhatta · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-16 16:04:50Z

2

Interesting exercise.

I would suggest you try to first implement the following:

Swap values of two variables
Set a variable (say z) to zero if value of variable x >= value of variable y.

Since the program is supposed to sort exactly 6 integers, I suppose you can assume they are in the variables x1, x2, .., x6.

In the end we need: x1 <= x2 <= ... <= x6.

answered Apr 16, 2010 at 16:04

Aryabhatta

2 Comments

user309322 Over a year ago

to swap the values of 2 variables the code would be along the lines of while a not 0 do; incr Aux1; decr a; end; while b not 0 do; incr Aux2 decr b end; while Aux1 not 0 do; incr a; decr Aux1; end; while Aux2 not 0 do; incr b; decr Aux2; end; however the language provides no implementation of > or < operators and therefore am stuggling to work out how to solve this problem(unless i am missing something stupid)

user309322 Over a year ago

sorry should'nt have put that above

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