depth first vs breadth first

Robert Nicholson (steffi@DGS.dgsys.com)
Thu, 29 Aug 1996 16:51:03 -0400 (EDT)

Hi, I was having a discussion with a work collegue about robots and
implementing them in a depth or breadth first fashion.

I seem to remember an early version of the "Guidelines for Robot Writers"
page discouraging depth first and I'm wondering why.

Would somebody please explain to me why it is "unfriendly" to implement
a depth first traversal. I know this effects the stack locally but I don't
quite appreciate how it effects the remote sites I'm visiting.

NOTE: I don't intend to write a robot I'm just interested in the area :-)