Re: How do you check the equivalency of references?
Re: How do you check the equivalency of references?
- Subject: Re: How do you check the equivalency of references?
- From: Jon Pugh <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 07:58:33 -0700
At 9:19 AM +0000 8/9/2001, Jason W. Bruce wrote:
>
What's a checksum?
A checksum is a summation of a stream of bytes that is used to check a file without understanding it (1). Algorithms to do checksumming are often called hash algorithms. Java makes heavy use of this with their hash function on Object. The hashtable is ubiquitous in Java as a result.
In a hashtable, you match a key/value pair together so that given the key, you can find the value. The hash is used to position the key/value pair in the table. There are all kinds of different ways of doing the various pieces, which makes it really useful.
AppleScript uses a hashtable for its internal symbol table. I don't know how it hashs the symbols, but I'm sure it's icky. ;)
Jon
1) "Understand" in this sense is often replaced with grok in some circles, from a Robert Heinlein story _Stranger in a Strange Land_ (1961). I originally wrote "without grokking it" but changed to this note for the benefit of the slang impaired. ;)