[ruby-core:41577] Re: [ruby-trunk - Feature #5478] import Set into core, add syntax

On 2011-12-09, at 12:05:41, Alexey Muranov wrote:
> 
> I agree, i was simply pointing out that set is, in my opinion, a more basic data structure than associative array, and both associative arrays and relations can be either built on top of it, or simply represented by sets.  In particular, it seems wrong to me that Set uses Hash in implementation, and not the other way around.

A hash table isn't an associative array (also known as a map). The latter can be implemented using the former, as can a set. Perhaps it'd have been better to abstract Hash more from its implementation, but it wasn't.

I don't see any practical benefit in unifying the two, given the assumption that Hash is to remain the default and fast data structure to use. Have you run any numbers to see how much of a hit you're going to take from deconstructing Hash?


--
Magic is indistinguishable from insufficiently advanced technology.