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Boost-Commit : |
Subject: [Boost-commit] svn:boost r76533 - in branches/release: . libs libs/functional libs/functional/hash/doc
From: dnljms_at_[hidden]
Date: 2012-01-15 15:49:41
Author: danieljames
Date: 2012-01-15 15:49:40 EST (Sun, 15 Jan 2012)
New Revision: 76533
URL: http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/76533
Log:
Hash: Merge documentation changes.
Properties modified:
branches/release/ (props changed)
branches/release/libs/ (props changed)
branches/release/libs/functional/ (props changed)
Text files modified:
branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/hash.qbk | 2 +-
branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/rationale.qbk | 20 ++++++++++----------
2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
Modified: branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/hash.qbk
==============================================================================
--- branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/hash.qbk (original)
+++ branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/hash.qbk 2012-01-15 15:49:40 EST (Sun, 15 Jan 2012)
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
[library Boost.Functional/Hash
- [quickbook 1.4]
+ [quickbook 1.5]
[authors [James, Daniel]]
[copyright 2005 2006 2007 2008 Daniel James]
[purpose A TR1 hash function object that can be extended to hash user
Modified: branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/rationale.qbk
==============================================================================
--- branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/rationale.qbk (original)
+++ branches/release/libs/functional/hash/doc/rationale.qbk 2012-01-15 15:49:40 EST (Sun, 15 Jan 2012)
@@ -5,10 +5,10 @@
[section:rationale Rationale]
-The rationale for the design can be found in the original design
-[footnote issue 6.18 of the __issues__ (page 63)], but an issue that
-occasionally comes up is the quality of the hash function, so that
-demands some more attention.
+The rationale can be found in the original design
+[footnote issue 6.18 of the __issues__ (page 63)].
+
+[heading:quality Quality of the hash function]
Many hash functions strive to have little correlation between the input
and output values. They attempt to uniformally distribute the output
@@ -16,23 +16,23 @@
attempt. In fact, for integers, the result of the hash function is often
just the input value. So similar but different input values will often
result in similar but different output values.
-
This means that it is not appropriate as a general hash function. For
example, a hash table may discard bits from the hash function resulting
in likely collisions, or might have poor collision resolution when hash
values are clustered together. In such cases this hash function will
preform poorly.
-So why not implement a higher quality hash function? Well, the standard
-makes no such guarantee, it just requires that the hashes of two
-different values are unlikely to collide. Containers or algorithms
+But the standard has no such requirement for the hash function,
+it just requires that the hashes of two different values are unlikely
+to collide. Containers or algorithms
designed to work with the standard hash function will have to be
implemented to work well when the hash function's output is correlated
to its input. Since they are paying that cost a higher quality hash function
would be wasteful.
For other use cases, if you do need a higher quality hash function,
-there are several options
+then neither the standard hash function or `boost::hash` are appropriate.
+There are several options
available. One is to use a second hash on the output of this hash
function, such as [@http://www.concentric.net/~ttwang/tech/inthash.htm
Thomas Wang's hash function]. This this may not work as
@@ -47,4 +47,4 @@
representation, which is not always the case (e.g. for floating point
values).
-[endsect]
\ No newline at end of file
+[endsect]
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