Object ID's

[Bob Ippolito]

On 3/20/07, Neil Mix <nmix at pandora.com> wrote:
>
> On Mar 20, 2007, at 6:30 PM, Lars T Hansen wrote:
>
> > Sure, but the most I can do is write a clear spec.  If a programmer
> > reads guarantees into the spec that are not there (or indeed does not
> > understand the non-guarantees spelled out) then there's not much I can
> > do.
>
> Developers read documentation?  ;P  The spec is very clear (thank you
> Lars), anyone who reads it and jumps to the wrong conclusion has it
> coming to them.  I worry more about developers who see the method
> listed in reference docs that proliferate on the web (devguru.com,
> gotAPI.com, etc), the reliability of which may be questionable.  A
> globally scoped method named hashcode with a summary of "returns a
> hashcode for the given object"... well let's just say that I could
> see a younger version of me making an assumption I ought not.  ;)
>
> I think the global scoping is my concern, it looks too all-purpose in
> that context.  Hence scoping to Brendan's proposed class suits me
> just fine.

Do you really think that people will assume that hash means perfect
hash? I've never seen it taught or used that way. Maybe it's a common
programming mistake that I'm blissfully unaware of?

-bob