Well, if you have a large amount of files and you want to find the newest, the only reasonable optimization of your sort is the removal of said sort! You don't need more than a single pass (using linear time) to find an extreme. 
    my $extreme = [365_000, undef];
    foreach (<*.log>) {
        $extreme = [-M, $_] if $extreme -> [0] > -M
    }
    my $newest = $extreme -> [1];

[download]
And if you want to sort them, faster than an Orcish Maneuvre or a Schwartian Transform is the Guttman-Rosler Transform: 
    @files = map {substr $_ => 18}
             sort
             map {sprintf "%017.10f %s" => -M, $_} <*.log>;

[download]

-- Abigail

In reply to Re: Is too little too much? Coding under the microscope... by Abigail
in thread Is too little too much? Coding under the microscope... by snafu

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