Larry Wall: > Nope. Hash is mostly about meaning, and very little about implementation. > Please don't assume that I name things according to Standard Names in > Computer Science. I name things in English. Hash is just something > that is disordered, which describes the associative array interface > rather nicely, distinguishing it from the ordered Array interface.
Hm, but with which would you explain a "hash" in plain english? What would be the closest equivalents in the real world? I'm not a native english speaker, but I've never heard or read the word "hash" outside CS. I guess this ones are close: - collection (contra: doesn't imply the access to an item) - dictionary (contra: might be assumed ordered) - directory (contra: might be assumed ordered, clashes with a file directory) - index (contra: might be assumed ordered, might be too technical) The problem with the implication of an order in the real world concepts is that you probably won't find one that isn't ordered. Those things allow us to find something easily by a word. But as we first have to find that word, we have an ordered list of the words... So there is no perfect candidate in the above list. But in my opinion they are still more "english" than "hash". Additionally I believe it would be easier to learn that it's (e.g.) a dictionary that just is not ordered than learning a whole new word like a "hash" (which it was for me as a non-native english speaker). -- Thomas Wittek http://gedankenkonstrukt.de/ Jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
