A Simple Double Ended Queue Datastructure ========================================= Dequeue is implemented as a doubly linked circular list with a titular head node. By "titular head node", I mean an empty node to designate the beginning and end of the circularly linked list. I first saw this construction in the linux kernel source and it seem simple and elegant. I added the `.length` property to use it like I was using an Array. I was using a javascript Array as a FIFO. Somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 entries the program performance went to hell (dev host is a MBP w/8GB RAM). 15 minutes later, I implemented a simple dequeue and my FIFO scales up to millions of entries. It is a drop-in replacement for javascript-arrays-as-fifo. ## Example: Dequeue as a replacement for an Array as a FIFO var Dequeue = require('dequeue') //var fifo = [] var fifo = new Dequeue() fifo.length === 0 //=> true fifo.push(d1) fifo.length === 1 //=> true fifo.unshift(d2) fifo.pop() === d1 //=> true fifo.push(d3) fifo.shift() === d2 //=> true fifo.length === 1 //=> true; only d3 is in the dequeue ## API ### `deque = new Dequeue()` ### `deque.push(value)` Push a value on the end. ### `value = deque.pop()` Remove a value off the end. ### `deque.unshift(value)` Push a value on the beginning. ### `value = deque.shift()` Remove a value off the beginning. ### `deque.empty()` Remove all entries. This is NOT a test for an empty dequeue; use `deque.length` for that. ## Future Development Something this simple does not really need a roadmap. However, I am thinking of adding APIs to facilitate walking the Linked List via an iterator. It will be simple and fully backward compatible. ## About the Code I was convinced by [a blog posting](http://blog.izs.me/post/2353458699/an-open-letter-to-javascript-leaders-regarding) [by Issac Z. Schlueter](http://blog.izs.me/) that I don't need semicolons. So I don't use them.