Thomas Wouters wrote:
Because (relatively) small dicts with (broadly speaking) similar keys
are quite common in Python. Module and class and instance __dict__s,
for instance ;) As Tim mentioned, the dict implementation only looks
at part of the actual hash value (depending on the size of the dict)
and having hash values close but not the same greatly decreases the
chance of collisions in (relatively) small dicts.
I see--it's avoiding the Birthday Paradox. Collisions are actually more
likely if the numbers are totally random than if the numbers are,
because of a feeble hash algorithm, relatively consecutive. ;)
Got it, thanks,
/larry/
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