Hell again,
    I am working on the next version of Image::OrgChart (which may soon be renamed Business::OrgChart) and while doing so, i have run into a bit of a problem. My original code was very crude. For the new version i am re-writting the function which calculates the image final height and width based on the data. Here is where my problem is. I have a big, harry hash ... the kind that eats llama's for breakfast. The format is :

$hash{'mgr'}{
            'mid-mgmt' => {
                          coderA => {},
                          coderB => {
                                    'regexp monkey' => {},
                                    },
                          },
           };

## for quick ref :
# /mgr
# /mgr/mid-mgmt
# /mgr/mid-mgmt/coderA
# /mgr/mid-mgmt/coderB
# /mgr/mid-mgmt/coderB/regexp monkey
[download]

    Because of the nature, this hash of hashes can be of any depth, with any number of keys at each level (seems there are a lot of mid-mgmt people). I have a recursive hash-walking algorithm i am using to find two variables ,$high_keys and $high_depth (2 and 4 respectivly in this case). But, given the maximum number of keys, and the maximum depth, the best i can do is calculate how the max-plausable height like this :

## all of the object stuff is gone, this is alg only
# $height_of_a_box = font_height + all padding
$height = ($height_of_a_box * ($high_keys*$high_depth));
[download]

    The problem with this is that it always calculates the height as if each level had the maximum number of keys.

What i am wondering is : can anyone think of a way, given the data hash described, to calculate the height of the image ?

    I am not sure i explained this well enough, but it is confussing stuff (for me). i look forward to any help.

Why not an ascii art version of the image, just incase it helps explain :

+-------+
| mgmt  |
+-------+
    |    +----------+
    +----| mid-mgmt |
         +----------+
                |    +--------+
                |----| coderA |
                |    +--------+
                |    +--------+
                +----| coderB |
                     +--------+
                           |   +--------+
                           +---| monkey |
                               +--------+
[download]

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_{can't sleep clowns will eat me}
-- MZSanford