Rapid determination of placement for code and data for optimal access of the code and data during execution of software applications. An application that is to be efficiently arranged in a software carrier medium is instrumented such that the status of whether a particular unit of code or data has been accessed during a time interval is recorded in a time-ordered bit sequence for each such unit. A sort routine is used to sort the order of time-ordered bit sequences within an array of such sequences. The sort routine invokes a comparison function that operates upon the temporal information stored in the two time-ordered bit sequences that are being compared for the routine. The order of the code and data in the software application is reordered in accordance with the results of the sort routine.