Alternate Random Sort?

[Sarah Reichelt]

> I have a list of 14,000 numbers that consists of only 1's and 2's:
> 1
> 1
> 1
> 2
> 2
> 2
> 2
>
> I want to randomize the list.  When I use:
>
>   sort lines of mySet by random(the number of lines of mySet)
>
> ...the time needed is too slow (takes about 7 seconds to execute here).  Is
> there a faster way to randomize the list?  (the numbers could also be stored
> by item if that would help: 1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2)
>
> Here's a sample script:
>
> on mouseUp
>   repeat 6000
>     put 1 & cr after temp
>   end repeat
>   repeat 8000
>     put 2 & cr after temp
>   end repeat
>   delete last char of temp
>   put the millisecs into MS
>   sort lines of temp by random(the number of lines of temp)
>   put the millisecs - MS
> end mouseUp

Instead of asking it to compute the length of your list for every
line, how about just using:
   sort lines of temp by random(10000000)
or some suitably large number?

Cheers,
Sarah