Why triple encryption instead of split+encrypt?

[Perry E. Metzger]

solman at mit.edu says:
> Why do people do tripple DES and *shudder* tripple IDEA
                   ^^^^^^^triple.

> instead of doing some form of non-redundant secret splitting
> and then encrypting with multiple keys.

Because people like algorithms that work quickly and don't expand
their data by a factor of two or three. As I've noted before, in spite
of protestations, the evidence is good that splitting and encryption
doesn't by you much over simple superencipherment.

Perry