Re: [Caml-list] Map efficiency?

[Dustin Sallings <dustin@spy.net>]

On Nov 4, 2003, at 1:39, Christian Lindig wrote:

>> 	Also, is there a particular reason Map is so, um, inaccessible to
>> beginners?  Hashtbl's generic interface is much more inviting than
>> Map's functorial-only interface, especially to those not terribly
>> familiar with the module system.
>
> Map depends on keys to be ordered. This in turn requires to allow for a
> user-defined order: assume sets as keys that are implemented by
> unordered lists. Different lists can represent the same set. Hence, it
> must be possible to provide a user-defined order that would treat those
> lists as equal. The functor argument of Map contains the compare() 
> which
> does just that.

	I'm not suggesting doing away with the functorial interface, just 
providing an additional one that is more accessible.  I mean, something 
like this would be cool (excuse my abuse of syntax):

Map.create ('a -> 'a -> int)

	Then my app would just do this:

Map.create compare;;

-- 
Dustin Sallings

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