Prime numbers miscellaneous

For a context to this, please see Prime numbers.

Implicit Heap

The following is an original implicit heap implementation for the sieve of Eratosthenes, kept here for historical record. The Prime_numbers#Tree Merging with Wheel section simplifies it, removing the People a structure altogether, and improves upon it by using a folding tree structure better adjusted for primes processing, and a wheel optimization.

See also the message threads Re: "no-coding" functional data structures via lazyness for more about how merging ordered lists amounts to creating an implicit heap and Re: Code and Perf. Data for Prime Finders for an explanation of the People a structure that makes it work.

data People a = VIP a (People a) | Crowd [a]

mergeP :: Ord a => People a -> People a -> People a
mergeP (VIP x xt) ys                    = VIP x $ mergeP xt ys
mergeP (Crowd xs) (Crowd ys)            = Crowd $ merge  xs ys
mergeP xs@(Crowd (x:xt)) ys@(VIP y yt)  = case compare x y of
    LT -> VIP x $ mergeP (Crowd xt) ys
    EQ -> VIP x $ mergeP (Crowd xt) yt
    GT -> VIP y $ mergeP xs yt

merge :: Ord a => [a] -> [a] -> [a]
merge xs@(x:xt) ys@(y:yt) = case compare x y of
    LT -> x : merge xt ys
    EQ -> x : merge xt yt
    GT -> y : merge xs yt

diff xs@(x:xt) ys@(y:yt) = case compare x y of
    LT -> x : diff xt ys
    EQ ->     diff xt yt
    GT ->     diff xs yt

foldTree :: (a -> a -> a) -> [a] -> a
foldTree f ~(x:xs) = x `f` foldTree f (pairs xs)
    where pairs ~(x: ~(y:ys)) = f x y : pairs ys

primes, nonprimes :: [Integer]
primes    = 2:3:diff [5,7..] nonprimes
nonprimes = serve . foldTree mergeP . map multiples $ tail primes
    where
    multiples p = vip [p*p,p*p+2*p..]

    vip (x:xs)       = VIP x $ Crowd xs
    serve (VIP x xs) = x:serve xs
    serve (Crowd xs) = xs

nonprimes effectively implements a heap, exploiting lazy evaluation.