I don't know, this article is immediately confusing, because the rules seem wrong, or inconsistent at least. That makes it harder to understand what's going on, unless I suppose one knows already.
The first rule does not allow trees containing less than 2 elements.
The second rule makes me wonder how "N" is being used in the rules. The first rule treats it as a per-node variable, per the second rule it has to be a variable external to the node. Also, what if N is not divisible by 2?
Now that I don't trust the rules anymore, I cannot tell what the third rule is trying to do or if it's even correct, because so far it has not been stated what purpose these rules are trying to accomplish.
Rule 4 contradicts rule 1.
Now, the ordering rules (and the demo) do not allow multiple elements with the same key. Is this on purpose? Database indexes support this, so it would be nice to get one sentence about, so I don't have to wonder why this general introduction does not seem to deal with it.
I'm only this far in, and it already threw multiple wrenches into my attempts at thinking along. Now I can try to fill the gaps in the explanation myself, but I'm wondering how much I can trust the interactive elements to test my own understanding.
This article has a lot of potential, but it could really use an editing pass or two.
The first rule does not allow trees containing less than 2 elements.
The second rule makes me wonder how "N" is being used in the rules. The first rule treats it as a per-node variable, per the second rule it has to be a variable external to the node. Also, what if N is not divisible by 2?
Now that I don't trust the rules anymore, I cannot tell what the third rule is trying to do or if it's even correct, because so far it has not been stated what purpose these rules are trying to accomplish.
Rule 4 contradicts rule 1.
Now, the ordering rules (and the demo) do not allow multiple elements with the same key. Is this on purpose? Database indexes support this, so it would be nice to get one sentence about, so I don't have to wonder why this general introduction does not seem to deal with it.
I'm only this far in, and it already threw multiple wrenches into my attempts at thinking along. Now I can try to fill the gaps in the explanation myself, but I'm wondering how much I can trust the interactive elements to test my own understanding.
This article has a lot of potential, but it could really use an editing pass or two.