Re: [oliver: Re: [Caml-list] Should be INSIDE STANDARD-LIB: Hashtbl.keys]

[Jon Harrop <jdh30@cam.ac.uk>]

On Sunday 25 April 2004 7:54 pm, Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk wrote:
> W liście z sob, 24-04-2004, godz. 05:46 +0100, Jon Harrop napisał:
> > I don't want the overhead of hash tables carrying around and updating an
> > int.
>
> But it already does it! (to know when to rehash)

Another int, then. ;-)

In case anyone is interested, my peeve about carrying the length of a list 
around inside the list in the case of the STL came from my use of a data 
structure for molecular dynamics: The atomic structure is described by 
particle coordinates within a cubic box under periodic boundary conditions. 
Conventionally, the box is partitioned into voxels so that you can lookup 
neighbouring atoms efficiently. Each voxel contains a list of atoms within 
the voxel. I was often using ~10^6 voxels, so the STL list was carrying 4Mb 
of unecessary data with my data structure.

Thus, in the context of ocaml, I'd like to see "low-level" libraries which 
carry as little as possible. This isn't just for cache coherence but also 
because I think it is good design. If someone wants a Hashtbl which carries 
(and updates) baggage around with it to save you from having to record things 
yourself then they can create a "higher-level" implementation from the 
original. So, in summary, I like Hashtbl just the way it is... lean and 
mean. :-)

Cheers,
Jon.

PS: I tried to do the same thing in Mathematica but it can only pack the whole 
(4-dimensions of my) nested list into an array, or none of it. :(

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