Inorder traversal is a way to visit all the nodes of a binary tree in a specific order, where each node is processed between recursing on its left and right subtrees. It's commonly used in search and sort algorithms, but I'd rather be implementing a red-black tree deletion in Rust right now.

How to use it in a sentence

• "I was trying to debug this distributed system that uses an in-memory inorder traversal for caching, but I got paged at 2am because the CEO couldn't load his Instagram feed."

• "My PM keeps asking me how long it will take to add inorder traversal to our blockchain-based coffee maker app, but I'm too busy shitposting on HackerNews to estimate it."

If you actually want to learn more...

• Real-time full-text search with Luwak and Samza - This article discusses how indexing queries and breaking them into simpler subqueries can dramatically speed up search, eliminating up to 99% of queries. Choosing which query terms to index based on rarity is one useful optimization.

• How the BST Code was Broken - Chris Stover explains why a stronger invariant beyond just (left child) < node < (right child) is needed for binary search trees. The "bst-remove" function in particular fails to maintain the critical max(left subtree) < node < min(right subtree) property.

• Lisp Resources - Paul Graham compiled an extensive list of resources related to Lisp and other programming languages. It includes links to language specs, tutorials, code examples, FAQs, and more. A great starting point for diving deeper into Lisp and functional programming paradigms often used with tree traversals.

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