William D Clinger scripsit:
> Per Bothner wrote:
>  > Random accesses to a position in a string that has not
>  > been previously accessed is not in itself useful.
>
> Untrue.  The Boyer-Moore algorithm for fast string
> searching uses random accesses to positions that have
> not been previously accessed [1].

Another use case, archaic as it may seem, is still important: processing
fixed-length fields in text files.

--
At the end of the Metatarsal Age, the dinosaurs         John Cowan
abruptly vanished. The theory that a single             xxxxxx@reutershealth.com
catastrophic event may have been responsible            www.reutershealth.com
has been strengthened by the recent discovery of        www.ccil.org/~cowan
a worldwide layer of whipped cream marking the
Creosote-Tutelary boundary.             --Science Made Stupid