Alejandro's problem may well be that the formula he is bootstrapping is not
determinant and, if so, that should bother him. At this point, all we really
know is that -stable- solved the reproducibility problem. There is one thing,
however, that I can guarantee: there is a program bug or a substantive error,
and -stable- is covering it up.
I think what is most troubling about -unstable- is that its results
can't be reproduced; you can run the exact same problem twice and get
different sort orders. Further, -set seed- has no effect on
this. That goes counter to the idea that you should be able to
exactly reproduce results; and it also seems odd that the exact same
commands produce different outcomes. I can understand not knowing in
advance how a sort will turn out, but having done it once I'm
surprised it doesn't come out the same way the next time. If
-unstable- produced reproducible outcomes i think people would feel
more comfortable with it.
