/** Returns a child of p with height no smaller than that of the other child */
  protected Position tallerChild(Position p)  {
    if (height(left(p)) > height(right(p))) return left(p);
    else if (height(left(p)) < height(right(p))) return right(p);
    // equal height children - break tie using parent's type
    if (isRoot(p)) return left(p);
    if (p == left(parent(p))) return left(p);
    else return right(p);
  }
  /**  
    * Rebalance method called by insert and remove.  Traverses the path from 
    * zPos to the root. For each node encountered, we recompute its height 
    * and perform a trinode restructuring if it's unbalanced.
    */
  protected void rebalance(Position zPos) {
    if(isInternal(zPos))
       setHeight(zPos);
    while (!isRoot(zPos)) {  // traverse up the tree towards the root
      zPos = parent(zPos);
      setHeight(zPos);
      if (!isBalanced(zPos)) { 
	// perform a trinode restructuring at zPos's tallest grandchild
        Position xPos =  tallerChild(tallerChild(zPos));
        zPos = restructure(xPos); // tri-node restructure (from parent class)
        setHeight(left(zPos));  // recompute heights
        setHeight(right(zPos));
        setHeight(zPos);
      }
    }
  } 
  // overridden methods of the dictionary ADT
  public Entry insert(Object k, Object v) throws InvalidKeyException  {
    Entry toReturn = super.insert(k, v); // calls our new createNode method
    rebalance(actionPos); // rebalance up from the insertion position
    return toReturn;
  }
  public Entry remove(Entry ent) throws InvalidEntryException {
    Entry toReturn = super.remove(ent);
    if (toReturn != null)   // we actually removed something
      rebalance(actionPos);  // rebalance up the tree
    return toReturn;
  }
} // end of AVLTree class