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SORTDEMO.BAS

fragglet · 10.5K views · 2010-07-19 · 2:50

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Overview

A three-minute capture of SORTDEMO.BAS, the sorting visualization that shipped with QBasic. It animates insertion, bubble, heap, exchange, shell and quick sort with chiptune-like sound.

On Hacker News

HN fondly recalls it as the ideal visual demonstration of sorting algorithms and as the thing that got some people into programming.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2019–2023

Topics

Algorithms & data structuresDemoscene & retrocomputing
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qbasicsortingalgorithmsretro computingvisualization

What people said

choult · 2022-05 · Recommendation

Q(uick)Basic was my first programming language, and as others mentioned NIBBLES and GORILLAS.BAS were bundled with it. It also had the ability to compile down to an executable, which was fantastic. One bundled script I don't see mentioned yet was SORTDEMO.BAS - this is still my ideal for demonstrating different sorts visually: [VIDEO]

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LVB · 2023-01 · Reference

Watching SORTDEMO.BAS at the formative age of ~11 baited me into programming. I recall messing around trying to make even faster versions. [VIDEO]

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agf · 2019-02 · Reference

I discovered sorting algorithms (including bubblesort) from SORTDEMO.BAS -- [VIDEO] -- which came with QBasic.

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Sources

Video by fragglet, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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