Thread:Extension talk:DynamicPageList (Wikimedia)/Code suggestion: Sort by page title w/o specific category/reply (4)

Yes, 'page_namespace, page_title' would (should) be faster in the case that no categories were selected. (This is of course off the top of my head. Before making statements about which way is faster, I should really be doing sql EXPLAIN's to actually check what really happens).

As for git - I would kind of prefer this (page_namespace, page_title) be used as what happens if someone selects an alphabetical listing but doesn't select any categories (instead of being a sorting method in its own right). Of course this is slightly different from the current alphabetical listing for categories where it is semi-sorted into namespaces, but nonetheless hopefully close enough. In the case where a category is chosen, the current sorting by cl_type, cl_sortkey would probably be faster then page_namespace, page_title, so I would like it to keep with the fastest method possible.