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Once again I am late to the party. Cedric posted a coding challenge on his blog. It looks like Crazy Bob took the prize for most creative (and fastest) implementation. I would like to think that I could have come up with a similar solution, but then again, I also like to think that I could look like Schwarzenegger if I ever started working out.
However, Cedric posted a follow up, “Port Bob's code to your language.” Bob’s code was in Java. However, I am a Java programmer, so that sort of rules out a port. But I was able to make a few performance enhancements. Instead of a doubly linked list, I used a singly linked list and thus was able to prevent a few unnecessary assignments and eliminate a few checks. In addition, once the max has been found, I use a Throwable to unwind the stack. On my Intel MacBook, I see performance enhancements of 10-20%. The code can be found here: ModifiedBeustSequence. Or for the comparison, see here: CompareBeustSequence.
But sticking to the assignment, I did do a straight port of my modified version into Common Lisp, which I have been toying with lately (The port can be found here: beust.lisp). I’m sure that any respectable Lisp programmer could come up with a much more Lisp-like solution. If you go to the trouble, I would love to see it.
