[tromp]

The preferred measure of information content is simply number of bits as used for instance in Algorithmic Information Theory [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_information_theory

[jodrellblank]

By that measure naming a variable “objUser” instead of “user” is better because it has more information, and naming the same variable “cgjkkytdvjkftujmhffetb” is even better because it contains more information.

The parse tree approach is trying to get at a fuzzy notion of useful information and useful density of information.