My response got away from me before I had completed it. It should have been
You need to keep two things in mind. Even very simple optimizers 1) break off evaluation with the outcome FALSE as soon as an AND component is found to be false, and 2) break off evaluation with the outcome true as soon as an OR component is found to be true. The components bi of the disjunction a = b1 | b2 | b3 |...|bn should be arranged in descending probability sequence, the most likely first; and the components di of the conjunction c = d1 & d2 & d3 &...& dn should be arranged in ascending probability sequence, the least likely first. Your second example therefore gets things backwards. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
