Re: SRFI-69: hash-table-size

[David Van Horn <dvanhorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sven.Hartrumpf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi Felix and Panu, dear list readers.
>
> If I understand correctly, we have this confusing mixture:
>
>    chicken           SRFI-69          meaning
>
> 1. hash-table-size   -                number of buckets or so
> 2. hash-table-count  hash-table-size  number of associations


> Any more preexisting "naming art"?

Many Schemes implement hash tables, but I've found no other Scheme providing a 
number of buckets operation.  Of the Schemes that have a number of 
associations operation, the names vary highly.  A survey of the naming 
conventions follows below.  SRFI 44 Collections speaks to this issue with the 
following:

   Size versus Length

   Most collections possess a concept of size. The size of a collection is the
   number of values or mappings it currently contains. This differs from the
   concept of length in Scheme datastructures, which corresponds to the number
   of cons cells or vector slots the structure contains. A collection may
   contain more cells or slots than required to contain its values or
   mappings. An example might be a hashtable collection, which may at any
   given time contain numerous unoccupied, discontiguous cells. This matter is
   confused by the collections specified in this API, whose size and length
   are the same.

   Put another way, collection-size should return the number of enumeration
   steps that will occur, if known.

According to the SRFI 44 terminology, hash-table-size is the correct name for 
the number of associations, and SRFI 69 has it right.  However, as stated in 
the document, "This SRFI does not conform to the interface of maps presented 
in SRFI 44."  So clearly conforming to SRFI 44 is not a priority of the author.

In alphabetic order of the non-broken links to Scheme implementations from 
Scheme Systems Supporting SRFIs (besides Chicken, which you've covered):

Bigloo
------

hashtable-size table	bigloo procedure
Returns the number of entries contained in table.

Chez
----

[Has a hash table data type, but no size/length operation]

Gauche
------

Function: hash-table-num-entries ht
    Returns the number of entries in the hash table ht.

Guile
-----

[Has a hash table data type, but no size/length operation]

Kawa
----

[Kawa has no hash table data type]

Scheme 48
---------

[Has a hash table data type, but no size/length operation]

Larceny
-------

[From scanning larceny_src/Docs, I see no hash table data type]

PLT
---

(hash-table-count hash-table) returns the number of keys mapped by hash-table. 
If hash-table is not created with 'weak, then the result is computed in 
constant time and atomically. If hash-table is created with 'weak, see the 
caveat below about concurrent modification.

RScheme
-------

table-size -- Computes the number of keys in the table.

SCM
---

[Doesn't appear to have a hash table data type, but supports SLIB which does.]

Scsh
----

[Uses Scheme 48 hash tables]

SISC
----

procedure:  (hashtable/size hashtable) => number

    Returns the number of key/value pairs stored in hashtable.

SLIB
----

[Has a hash table data type, but no size/length operation]

SXM
---

[I could find no documentation]