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  Hi All -

I posted my solution in the 'rope.rb' file here:
http://pastie.caboo.se/93242
I slightly modified the nice benchmark tool because normalize doesn't work
on the rope itself for me.

I ran a few iterations with the benchmark with
SIZE  12 * 1024
CHUNKS  56.

The following is pretty representative of what I observed:

1) Normal strings:
Build:   0.733000   0.406000   1.139000 (  1.193000)
Sort:   7.800000   7.238000  15.038000 ( 15.924000)

2) Ropes
Build:   0.047000   0.016000   0.063000 (  0.060000)
Sort:  10.686000   0.016000  10.702000 ( 10.902000)

3) Ropes with the normalization function
Build:   0.156000   0.000000   0.156000 (  0.156000)
Sort:   5.741000   0.047000   5.788000 (  6.212000)

Regards,
Himadri

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