[PD] bugs and question

[Krzysztof Czaja]

hi Miller, Mathieu, Thomas...

how about explicit rehashing requests, to be issued only in
well-defined circumstances -- say, via a ``rehash if threshold
exceeded'' message to 'pd', and/or, from within
canvas_start/stop_dsp()?

It seems to me, that otherwise (without rehashing) there will
remain a hidden trap, threatening in particular certain types
of applications (e.g. installations), because one cannot avoid
producing new symbols, even if in a very slow pace.

Krzysztof

Miller Puckette wrote:
 > In general, it's a bad idea in Pd to write externs which create indeter-
 > minate numbers of symbols at run time.  The original intent was that the
 > only time anyone would call gensym was on text typed by the user.  In
 > this situation the existing realization is quite adequate.
 >
 > But even if you've written C code that generates millions of symbols on
 > the fly as it runs, the (linear-time-worst-case) existing algo is no worse
 > than the (linear-time-worst-case) "smart" algo.  In real time it's always the
 > worst case that counts, and the less variation in execution time your objects
 > can have the less likely someone will get a bad surprise someday.  So the
 > existing routine, which is _always_ slow, is better than any algorithm that
 > is only _occasionally_ slow.