bug#40540: Faster sort with locale

[Ole Tange]

I have noticed that if locale is set, then sort becomes much slower.

I imagine that it is because instead of doing

  simple_compare(string1,string2)

it does:

  localized_compare(string1,string2)

But would it be possible to convert the input string1 into a string in
a generalized format, which would sort the same way as the localized
sort, but using a simple compare? Like this:

  string1_general = localize(string1)
  string2_general = localize(string2)
  simple_compare(string1_general,string2_general)

If that is possible, then localize() can be done by other cores in
advance and thereby offload the "primary" core.


/Ole