Exercise on the B-Trees

Something to do to demonstrate that you learned something.


Please hand in at the beginning of class on 5/8/96.

A. Problems:

1.  When the cost of accessing a node is the same as a key-comparison,
it turns out that optimal order for a B-Tree is 3 or 4; yet
most B-Tree implementations use a much larger order.

   Why?
   How should you pick the order of your B-Tree (what are the key
     factors)?


2.  Write a Java method (by hand is ok, it doesn't have to be
compiler perfect) that runs the "insert" algorithm on the 
structure given in the lesson.



B.  Please record the answers to this evaluation along with the
answers to the problems above.

1.  The amount of information on each page was:

	1	2	3 	4 	5
     too little         ok           too much


2.  The practice questions (not the ones to hand in) were:

	1	2	3	4	5
     too easy      good to learn     too hard


3.  The explanations of the right/wrong answers were:

	1	2	3	4	5
     unneeded	     useful	     not detailed enough


4.  The hand-in exercises were:

	1	2	3	4	5
     too easy          ok	      too hard


5.  The ability to move back/forth thru the material was:

	1	2	3	4	5
     critical	      helpful	       unused
     to learning


6.  This module was:

	1	2	3	4	5
     better         interesting        icky
      than	    diversion or	waste of time
    lecture       no worse than class


7.  Estimate the amount of time it took you to:
	a) go thru the module
	b) complete the problems in A) above


8.  Please give any comments/suggestions which would help to
characterize the experience or improve it.