*as many as (about) 2*N - log2(N) parent child relationships* * * I would like to know how did you come up with the above formula? Forgive my ignorance.
-- Thanks and Best Regards, Iftikhan Nazeem *Skype* : iftecan2000 On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 11:04 PM, Terry Reedy <tjre...@udel.edu> wrote: > >>> import this > > prints 'The Zen of Python', a poem by Tim Peters that consists of python > proverbs such as "Flat is better than nested." (Others things being equal) > why? Because it is a restatement of the principle of parsimony, of not > multiplying entities without necessity. > > Suppose we have a unstructured collection of N items. Organizer comes > along and says 'Let there be structure. Let us organize the items as leaf > nodes in a hierarchical tree' (which is equivalent to nesting). To do so, > we can add as many as N-1 new non-leaf nodes and as many as (about) 2*N - > log2(N) parent child relationships. In other words, nearly quadruple the > number of entities to learn, discuss, and remember. Well, there had better > be a good necessity to do so ;-). > > And, of course, once new entities *are* conjured up, it is hard to get rid > of them. > > -- > Terry Jan Reedy > > > -- > http://mail.python.org/**mailman/listinfo/python-list<http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list> >
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