>To do a test for this yourself, grab a book, any book. Scan thru as fast >as you can looking for the word "FOR". See how long it takes you. Now >repeat it, looking for the letter "F". Believe it or not, looking for the >letter "F" only can take longer. When looking for the word "FOR" you are >processing large chunks of data looking for a specific item, but you >aren't processing what the unwanted data is, so you same brain time. When >looking for just the letter "F" you need to process all the small bits of >data (decode the words) looking for the specific letter burried inside >it. This needs more brain power, and results in a slower search.
In the immortal words of Willy Wonka... Strike that, reverse it. Sorry, in my rush to get out the door to pick up my wife from work, I laid out the right example, but reversed what you are searching for. The word FOR is the slower because you are processing the words, not the letter F (which if you read what I wrote, is what I was explaining, just reversed the word and the letter). So do the above example, but the letter F will turn out to be the faster because you are ignoring all the extra data, while the word FOR is the slower because you need to process and decode the words. sorry about that... now I'm off to wash my foot... after having it in my mouth I realize exactly how dirty it is :-) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
