That's cool...I'm not looking to start a pissing
contest, but the question didn't have any replies
when I started my post, so I didn't have the
benefit of your code.

As far as the difference between a pointer and a
reference...dude, when it comes down to it, aren't
they really just the same thing? Semantically, yes,
they're different. Under the hood? I pass things by
reference, I give you the address. I use a pointer,
it holds the address of something. I make a reference
and I point you to a seperate chunk of code. I'm not
a complete chimp on that respect. I haven't had the
time or inclination to go look at whether or not the
interpreter makes full substitutions at references or
jumps to the sub when everything's said and done.
That's deeper than I've needed to be for a long time.

I _am_ an Acolyte, though, and one who does not get to
code nearly as much as he wants to, so it is my bad
for missing the pretty obvious reference to the
native sort. I shouldn't have done that. I've always
had that inherent distrust of someone else's code that
I haven't thoroughly looked examined, just a leftover
from school, and that's why I made the comment about
picking a sorting algorithm. I know those ingrown ones
are usually good at large data sets, but I like to pull
off the lid and see _exactly_ how it's working inside,
make sure it fits. You can't blame a guy for that.


ever learning,
-B.

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