Written to solve the problem of sorting a text file posed at http://devblog.avdi.org/2013/10/16/sorting-lines-in-5-languages/ in Applescript

avdi-sort.applescript

-- 
--  avdi-sort.applescript
--  Written to solve the problem of sorting a text file posed
--  at http://devblog.avdi.org/2013/10/16/sorting-lines-in-5-languages/
--  
--  Created by Caius Durling on 2013-10-17.
--  Probably not the best applescript ever, but it works.
-- 
--  USAGE: 
--    $ osascript avdi-sort.scpt to_sort.txt sorted.txt


-- Grabbed from http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/sbrt/sbrt-05.html
-- to save writing my own implementation. Ungolfed.
on sort_file(my_list)
  local index_list, sorted_list, low_item, this_item, low_item_index
  set the index_list to {}
  set the sorted_list to {}
  repeat (the number of items in my_list) times
    set the low_item to ""
    repeat with i from 1 to (number of items in my_list)
      if i is not in the index_list then
        set this_item to item i of my_list as text
        if this_item is not "" then -- Filter out blank newlines
          if the low_item is "" then
            set the low_item to this_item
            set the low_item_index to i
          else if this_item comes before the low_item then
            set the low_item to this_item
            set the low_item_index to i
          end if
        end if
      end if
    end repeat
    set the end of sorted_list to the low_item
    set the end of the index_list to the low_item_index
  end repeat
  return the sorted_list
end simple_sort

on basename(fileName)
  -- Get path to file so we can read it
  tell application "Finder" to set baseDir to POSIX path of ((container of (path to me)) as alias)
  return (baseDir & fileName)
end

on run argv
  -- Split/join by newlines in this script
  set text item delimiters to "\n"

  -- Find the proper paths of the passed files
  set inputFile to basename(item 1 of argv)
  set outputFile to basename(item 2 of argv)

  -- Read & sort the files
  set fileLines to text items of (read inputFile as «class utf8»)
  set sortedOutput to sort_file(fileLines) as string

  -- Write the output! Creates file if required
  open for access outputFile with write permission
  write sortedOutput to outputFile as «class utf8»
end run