An Ada 95 sort race construction set

A "sort race" is a set of sort algorithms, executing concurrently and using some kind of visualization scheme to display the state of the various sorts as they proceed. The sort race is often used in algorithms and data structures courses to illustrate the disparate behavior and time performance of different sort algorithms; it has also served software engineering education, as an interesting, even exciting, example of concurrent programming and separation of concerns. This paper describes a set of Ada 95 packages providing a "sort race construction set," which allows users to create sort races on various platforms using various techniques for rendering the race display. We have used the construction set with GNAT to implement sort races using the Macintosh user interface and graphics libraries, VGA graphical displays on MS-DOS computers, and standard 24 x 80 character displays.