inSort()'s revenge

Once upon a time, twenty years ago now, Qt's generic data structures included a function called QList::inSort(). Haavard Nord wrote that and didn't really document it, and when I wanted to write about it he only said it was useful sometimes. What was I to write? Use inSort() rather than insert() when that's useful?

There is a chance that I simply deleted it when I couldn't write sensible documentation.

Two decades later I finally understand why inSort() was a good idea after all. It's useful for a particular kind general data structure that only occurs in GUIs: The list that should be mostly sorted, but should not be resorted once it's shown on-screen.

Consider a list of things that the user can select and either open or delete. Sorting by modification time can make sense (for some kinds of things), but if a UI-thing were to move when someone else updates the actual-thing, then it might move an instant before the user selects and deletes that. Oops.

Thus inSort(). Stupid name, but its presence would have been an improvement to some GUIs.