A heuristic explanation of Batcher's Baffler

AbstractBatcher's Baffler—so named by David Gries—is a sorting algorithm that is of interest because many of its ‘comparison swaps’ can be executed concurrently. It is also of interest because it used to be hard to explain.This note explains Batcher's Baffler by designing it. Besides including all heuristics, it has two distinguishing features, both contributing to its clarity and brevity: 1.(0) the (little) theory the algorithm relies upon is dealt with in isolation;2.(1) by suitable abstractions, all case analyses have been removed from the argument