hash table access time

["Daniel L. Weinreb" <DLW@alderaan.scrc.symbolics.com>]

    Date: Mon, 24 Aug 87 16:58:30 PDT
    From: Robert Kasper <kasper@vaxa.isi.edu>

    I was surprised that it was this high,
    since hash-tables are supposed to be designed to optimize access time.

I don't think 35 is very high.  We all learn in school that hash table
lookup or binary search are "faster than linear search", but statements
like that are only true when the size of the search set becomes
sufficiently large.  Many people underestimate just how speedy linear
searches can be.

The table system in Genera 7 takes care of all of this for you, anyway.
It knows where all those break-point numbers are, and uses the
appropriate representation to get the fastest search.