> On 13 Mar 2017, at 20:18, Sean Heber <s...@fifthace.com> wrote:
>
> Is there any reason the API couldn’t be expressed as something along these
> lines?
>
> func hash() -> [Hashable] {
> return [x, y]
> }
From a pure performance standpoint, it forces the creation of an array. But if
you really want something like that, you can define:
extension Hasher {
mutating func write(_ visitables: [HashVisitable]) {
for visitable in visitables {
visitable.hash(&self)
}
}
}
So you can do:
func hash<H: Hasher>(_ hasher: inout H) {
hasher.write([x, y])
}
> l8r
> Sean
>
>
>> On Mar 13, 2017, at 2:15 PM, David Hart <da...@hartbit.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On 13 Mar 2017, at 18:54, Sean Heber via swift-evolution
>>> <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I’m dumb when it comes to proper hashing, but it’s such a tediously common
>>> thing in my experience to need to add Hashable to some kind of a struct so
>>> I can stash it in a set or use it as a dictionary key. Is there really no
>>> way to make this all more automatic? I have to be honest - this proposal
>>> seems *harder* to understand than the way it works now.
>>
>> It's not really harder: just call hash on each of your type's significant
>> values:
>>
>> x.hash(&hasher)
>> y.hash(&hasher)
>>
>> How would you implement hashValue in a simpler way, remembering that 'x ^ y'
>> is an incorrect implementation?
>>
>>> Of course the easiest would be if the language could just do this “good
>>> enough" for me using reflection or whatever and if I really did run into a
>>> problem where I wanted to do this myself, I could override something.
>>>
>>> Perfect is the enemy of good.
>>>
>>> l8r
>>> Sean
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Mar 13, 2017, at 10:38 AM, Vincent Esche via swift-evolution
>>>> <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi there,
>>>>
>>>> I've written up a proposal for an overhaul/replacement of the Hashable
>>>> protocol and would love to hear your feedback on it!
>>>>
>>>> Rendered | Blog Post
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Vincent
>>>>
>>>> Ps: I'd like to thank David Hart (@hartbit) for his great editorial
>>>> feedback on this proposal. 👍
>>>>
>>>> HashVisitable
>>>>
>>>> • Proposal: SE-NNNN
>>>> • Authors: Vincent Esche
>>>> • Review Manager: TBD
>>>> • Status: Awaiting review
>>>> Introduction
>>>>
>>>> Replace the Hashable protocol by two new procotols (Hasher and
>>>> HashVisitable) to improve safety, versatility and learnability.
>>>>
>>>> Motivation
>>>>
>>>> Implementing Hashable is difficult and the consequences if not done well
>>>> have dire performance and safety repercussions.
>>>>
>>>> The documentation of Hashable lists a sample implementation of var
>>>> hashValue:
>>>>
>>>> /// A point in an x-y coordinate system.
>>>> struct GridPoint {
>>>> var x: Int
>>>> var y: Int
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> extension GridPoint: Hashable {
>>>> var hashValue: Int {
>>>> return x.hashValue ^ y.hashValue
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> static func == (lhs: GridPoint, rhs: GridPoint) -> Bool {
>>>> return lhs.x == rhs.x && lhs.y == rhs.y
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> Calculating the hashes of all GridPoints (given the above implementation)
>>>> on a 1000 × 1000 grid …
>>>>
>>>> let (width, height) = (1000, 1000)
>>>> let total = width * height
>>>> var hashes = Set<Int>()
>>>> for x in 0..<width {
>>>> for y in 0..<height {
>>>> hashes.insert(GridPoint(x: x, y: y).hashValue)
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>> print("\(hashes.count) unique hashes out of a total of \(total).")
>>>>
>>>> … results in just 1024 unique hash values for 1_000_000 unique values.
>>>>
>>>> In other words: The recommended implementation causes 99.9% of values to
>>>> trigger a hash collision.
>>>>
>>>> Out of those 1_000_000 values the median collision count was 976 with min
>>>> and max being 976 and 1000respectively.
>>>>
>>>> The collision rate will have negative impact in algorithms which heavily
>>>> use hashValue like the ones in Dictionaryand Set. Furthermore, it
>>>> increases the vulnerability to DDOS attacks when exposed to the web.
>>>>
>>>> If even the official Swift documentation gets the implementation of
>>>> hashValue wrong, then who is to expect the average Swift programmer to do
>>>> any better?
>>>>
>>>> In contrast, running the same snippet using HashVisitable and the
>>>> semi-secure Fnv1aHash (see below) results in zero collisions!
>>>>
>>>> Finally, the design of the Hashable protocol forces the use of one
>>>> implementation without the possibility of switching between multiple
>>>> hashing algorithms.
>>>>
>>>> Proposed solution
>>>>
>>>> Instead of coupling the hashing algorithm with each and every Swift type,
>>>> we should provide a hashing API based on the visitor-pattern. By freeing
>>>> application developers from the burden of having to implement hashing
>>>> algorithms, the Standard Library can provide default ones which fulfill
>>>> collision, performance and security goals. Furthermore, it would allow
>>>> developers to swap to different algorithms based on the use case.
>>>>
>>>> Detailed design
>>>>
>>>> The proposal deprecates the Hashable protocol and introduces the following
>>>> two:
>>>>
>>>> protocol Hasher
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> mutating func finish() -> Int
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> mutating func write(bytes
>>>> : UnsafeRawBufferPointer)
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> protocol HashVisitable
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> func hash<H: Hasher>(_ hasher: inout
>>>> H)
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> Hasher is the protocol which represents a hashing algorithm, and
>>>> HashVisitable replaces Hashable. For types entirely represented by their
>>>> memory layout, the following protocol would provide a default
>>>> implementation:
>>>>
>>>> protocol ContiguouslyHashable: HashVisitable {}
>>>>
>>>> extension ContiguouslyHashable {
>>>> func hash<H: Hasher>(_ hasher: inout H) {
>>>> var mutableSelf = self
>>>> try! Swift.withUnsafeBytes(of: &mutableSelf) {
>>>> hasher.write(bytes: $0)
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> extension Bool : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension UInt8 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension UInt16 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension UInt32 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension UInt64 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension UInt : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension Int8 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension Int16 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension Int32 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension Int64 : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>> extension Int : ContiguouslyHashable {}
>>>>
>>>> The Standard-Library would then provide a set of hashing implementations
>>>> specific to each purpose. A possible choice for hashing algorithms would
>>>> be the reasonably fast SipHash-2-4, and the reasonably secure SipHash-4-8.
>>>>
>>>> FNV-1A is another popular semi-secure but blazingly fast hash algorithm,
>>>> which – for the sake of demonstration – could be implemented as follows:
>>>>
>>>> struct Fnv1aHash
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> fileprivate var state: UInt
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> init(seed: UInt
>>>> ) {
>>>>
>>>> self.state = seed &+ 14695981039346656037
>>>>
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> extension Fnv1aHash: Hasher
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> mutating func write(bytes
>>>> : UnsafeRawBufferPointer) {
>>>>
>>>> for byte in
>>>> bytes {
>>>>
>>>> self.state = (self.state ^ UInt(byte)) &* 1099511628211
>>>>
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> mutating func finish() -> Int
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> return unsafeBitCast(self.state, to: Int.self
>>>> )
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> Coming back to the sample code present in the Hashable documentation, the
>>>> new implementation would look like:
>>>>
>>>> extension GridPoint: HashVisitable
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> func hash<H: Hasher>(_ hasher: inout
>>>> H) {
>>>>
>>>> self.x.hash(&
>>>> hasher)
>>>>
>>>> self.y.hash(&
>>>> hasher)
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> Source compatibility
>>>>
>>>> Making use of "extending protocols to conform to protocols":
>>>>
>>>> extension Hashable: HashVisitable
>>>> {
>>>>
>>>> func hash<H: Hasher>(_ hasher: inout
>>>> H) {
>>>>
>>>> self.hashValue.hash(&
>>>> hasher)
>>>> }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> Effect on ABI stability
>>>>
>>>> n/a
>>>>
>>>> Effect on API resilience
>>>>
>>>> This feature should be possible to add/remove without breaking ABI.
>>>>
>>>> Alternatives considered
>>>>
>>>> n/a
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> swift-evolution mailing list
>>>> swift-evolution@swift.org
>>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> swift-evolution mailing list
>>> swift-evolution@swift.org
>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>
_______________________________________________
swift-evolution mailing list
swift-evolution@swift.org
https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
