Improve panic message and surrounding documentation for Ord violations

The new sort implementations have the ability to
detect Ord violations in many cases. This commit
improves the message in a way that should help
users realize what went wrong in their program.

1 files changed, 19 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/library/core/src/slice/sort/shared/smallsort.rs b/library/core/src/slice/sort/shared/smallsort.rs
index 5111ed8756b..f3b0bf8b018 100644
--- a/library/core/src/slice/sort/shared/smallsort.rs
+++ b/library/core/src/slice/sort/shared/smallsort.rs
@@ -834,9 +834,10 @@ unsafe fn bidirectional_merge<T: FreezeMarker, F: FnMut(&T, &T) -> bool>(
             right = right.add((!left_nonempty) as usize);
         }
 
-        // We now should have consumed the full input exactly once. This can
-        // only fail if the comparison operator fails to be Ord, in which case
-        // we will panic and never access the inconsistent state in dst.
+        // We now should have consumed the full input exactly once. This can only fail if the
+        // user-provided comparison operator fails implements a strict weak ordering as required by
+        // Ord incorrectly, in which case we will panic and never access the inconsistent state in
+        // dst.
         if left != left_end || right != right_end {
             panic_on_ord_violation();
         }
@@ -845,7 +846,21 @@ unsafe fn bidirectional_merge<T: FreezeMarker, F: FnMut(&T, &T) -> bool>(
 
 #[inline(never)]
 fn panic_on_ord_violation() -> ! {
-    panic!("Ord violation");
+    // This is indicative of a logic bug in the user-provided comparison function or Ord
+    // implementation. They are expected to implement a total order as explained in the Ord
+    // documentation.
+    //
+    // By raising this panic we inform the user, that they have a logic bug in their program. If a
+    // strict weak ordering is not given, the concept of comparison based sorting makes no sense.
+    // E.g.: a < b < c < a
+    //
+    // The Ord documentation requires users to implement a total order, arguably that's
+    // unnecessarily strict in the context of sorting. Issues only arise if the weaker requirement
+    // of a strict weak ordering is violated.
+    //
+    // The panic message talks about a total order because that's what the Ord documentation talks
+    // about and requires, so as to not confuse users.
+    panic!("user-provided comparison function does not correctly implement a total order");
 }
 
 #[must_use]