Re: hash tables and GC

[sandra@cs.utah.edu (Sandra J Loosemore)]

I suppose I should throw in my $.02 worth on this issue.  A couple of
weeks ago I was hacking on a piece of code where I thought that my job
would be made much easier if I could attach some extra information to
arbitrary objects.  Specifically, I was thinking it would be nice to be
able to attach a property list to arbitrary objects, and not just to
symbols.  (Two objects that are EQ would have the same property list.)

As far as what it would allow you to do, this functionality is actually
pretty close to what is being proposed with the GC'able hash tables, and
I think it has some advantages. First, it would allow more freedom of
implementation; off the top of my head, I can think of at least two
approaches to doing it.  And, it avoids some of the strangenesses that
would result from forcing GC'able hash tables into the same mold as
ordinary hash tables (like not allowing EQUAL as the :TEST, and MAPHASH
finding different sets of objects in the hash table depending on when
the last GC was).

Anybody else think this is worth pursuing?

-Sandra