THIS UIC CONTAINS SOURCE CODE, OBJECT LIBRARY, AND DOCUMENTATION FOR A 
REPLACEMENT FOR THE DEC SORT-11 SORT SUBROUTINE INTERFACE TO BE USED BY
THE DEC FORTRAN PROGRAMMING COMMUNITY.

WHAT THIS SORT IS:

1. A SORT SUBROUTINE INTERFACE SIMILAR TO SORT-11 EXCEPT THAT IT USES FCS 
   RATHER THAN HIGH-OVERHEAD RMS FOR ITS I/O.

2. A GENERAL PURPOSE SORTING TOOL FOR FORTRAN USERS WHO HAVE SMALL TO MEDIUM
   SCALE SORTING REQUIREMENTS.  (UP TO, SAY, 100,000 RECORDS)

WHAT THIS SORT IS NOT:

1. A HIGH PERFORMANCE SORTING TOOL.  WRITTEN MOSTLY IN FORTRAN (RATFOR) WITH
   ONE ASSEMBLY SUBROUTINE, IT IS NOT INTENDED TO COMPETE IN PERFORMANCE
   WITH DEC'S SORT-11.  TIMING TESTS HAVE SHOWN IT TO AVERAGE ABOUT FIVE 
   TIMES SLOWER THAN SORT-11, USING AN EQUIVALENT SIZED SORT WORK AREA. 

WHY USE THIS SORT, THEN?  BECAUSE IT USES FORTRAN FCS I/O, RATHER THAN 
RMS.  ITS TOTAL ADDITIONAL BURDEN ON A FORTRAN-BASED TASK ALREADY USING 
FCS/OTS IS ABOUT 2000 WORDS OF TASK IMAGE SPACE FOR THE CODE, PLUS 
WHATEVER SIZE WORK AREA IS SPECIFIED.  EXPERIENCE WITH DEC'S (RMS) 
SORT-11 SUBROUTINE INTERFACE SHOWS IT TO BE A WONDERFUL TOOL UNLESS, 
OF COURSE, YOU HAVE A NEED FOR MORE THAN ABOUT SIX LINES OF APPLICATIONS 
CODE TO FIT IN YOUR TASK.


THIS UIC CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING:

SORTS.RAT		RATFOR SOURCE FOR THIS SORT
COMP.MAC		ASSEMBLY SUBROUTINE USED BY THIS SORT
SORTS.DOC		DOCUMENTATION ON THE USE OF THIS SORT
SORTLIB.OLB		LIBRARY CONTAINING OBJECT MODULES FOR THIS SORT


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