[LAD] Strange Jack1 problem

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 09:23:28PM +0100, Simon Jenkins wrote:
 
> I wrote that comment whilst implementing what the list agreed 
> was the best way to deal with cycles in the graph. Its not
> “how the sort works” so much as “how we fudged the sort to
> deal with cycles”.

Indeed.

> I think the underlying sort mechanism was the same before I did
> that

It seems to have been like that for as long as the the git history
goes back, which is to 2006.

> That was always *supposed* to achieve a topological sort

But it doesn't. For at least ten years I just trusted that
Jack was doing this 'the right way', after all it's one of
its most basic tasks. And e.g. AMS which is at least as old
as Jack has always used DFS, a classical and well-known
solution for this sort of problem. 

It wouldn't be too difficult to fix this, but it won't be
a simple five-line patch either...


Ciao, 

-- 
FA

A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia.
It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris
and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow)