eq and hashing (was Re: [plt-scheme] How to make unit functors?)

On Thursday, May 29, 2003, at 01:01  PM, Robby Findler wrote:

>   For list-related administrative tasks:
>   http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
>
> At Thu, 29 May 2003 17:34:44 +0200, Jens_Axel_Søgaard wrote:
>>   For list-related administrative tasks:
>>   http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-scheme
>>
>> Robby Findler wrote:
>>
>>> But, if you take the hash-code of one of them and then wait a while
>>> (and perform some garbage collections) then take the hash-code of the
>>> other, you'll find that they are different.
>>>
>> I have understood the hash-code will remain the same as long as the 
>> symbol
>> (that specific) is alive.
>
> That's right. The "one of them" and the "other" above refer to two
> different 'x symbols (from my earlier message), typed in at different
> times.

Just to have the question out there:  how bad would it be never to 
collect (the strings representing) symbols? The up side would be that 
this problem would go away.  The down side is that certain loops could 
exhaust memory... but _only_ those where the loop included a 'read' or 
equivalent. How many symbols are interned while starting up DrScheme, 
for instance?

john

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