The author shares a technique they have used in their software development projects, specifically in their text adventure game editor called Hiss. They explain the problem of displaying a tree-like list in a user interface and offer an alternative approach to implementing a parent-child relationship between items. Instead of using a database and recursive CTEs, they suggest a simpler method of storing the tree structure by including an indent level in the data. This approach not only simplifies rendering the list but also makes editing the tree easier. The author also provides an example of using “namespacing” to achieve a similar effect. They emphasize that the appearance of a tree is often more important than the actual relationship between items and caution against using this method when a true tree structure is required.
https://ratfactor.com/cards/fake-trees