Stephan Rudlof <sr at evolgo.de> is claimed by the authorities to have written:


> Is it planned to extend these 12 bits for VI4?
>
The problem with putting more hash bits in headers is thatyou have to
lose other useful bits or extend the size of the header or allow more
extendable headers. All of which takes time to analyse and implement and
debug and debug and debug...

If we increase the size of the headers, we 'waste' space in most cases
that don't need the hash value. If we have a more extensible header, we
waste time deciding if the extension is there for many object accesses.
About the only mechanism I have come across that provides really good
hash values for no particular space cost is using the OOP whn you have
a fixed oop objecct table. That has it's own costs hidden in there as
well.

As they say "Tha canna get owt f'r nowt".

tim

-- 
Tim Rowledge, tim at sumeru.stanford.edu, http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim
Useful random insult:- The two put together have an IQ over 150.