Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!decwrl!pa.dec.com!src.dec.com!saber.com!wyant@saber.com From: saber.com!wyant@saber.com Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula3 Subject: Typefinger printing in SRC M3 Message-ID: <9102041436.AA28682@riposte> Date: 4 Feb 91 14:36:37 GMT Lines: 15 To: m3 Can someone give a $.50 overview of the type fingerprinting algorithms used in SRC M3 ? My surface impression from scanning the sources is that works as follows. Each type (scalar or constructed) has an operation to return a textual type name. When fingerprinting a constructed type (esp. an object/record) a string is constructed containing the recursive enumeration of all scalar type names used in that constructed type. This string is then treated as input to the "poly" function to compute a 64-bit fingerprint. Is this reasonably accurate or am I way out in left field >> Thanks in advance :-) Geoff Wyant wyant@saber.com