Erlang version of sleep sort based on http://dis.4chan.org/read/prog/1295544154 http://instacod.es/65572 http://xkcd.com/1185/

sleepsort.erl

-module(sleepsort).

-export([test/0,
         sort/1]).

test() ->
  [1,2,3] = sort([1,2,3]),
  [1,2,3] = sort([2,1,3]),
  [] = sort([]),
  [2,4,8,12,19] = sort([19,8,4,12,2]),
  Seq100 = lists:seq(1,100),
  Seq100 = sort(lists:reverse(Seq100)),
  ok.

sort(List) ->
  F = fun(Int) ->
          Self = self(),
          spawn(fun() -> sleepsend(Self, Int) end)
      end,
  lists:foreach(F, List),
  receive_sort(List, []).

receive_sort([], Sorted) ->
  lists:reverse(Sorted);
receive_sort([_H|T], Acc) ->
  receive
    {elem, Int} ->
      receive_sort(T, [Int|Acc])
  after 60000 ->
      {error, timeout}
  end.

sleepsend(From, Int) when is_integer(Int) ->
  timer:sleep(Int),
  From ! {elem, Int},
  ok.