[Python-Dev] Counting collisions for the win

[Tres Seaver]

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On 01/20/2012 02:04 PM, Donald Stufft wrote:

> Even if a MemoryException is raised I believe that is still a 
> fundamental change in the documented contract of dictionary API.

How so?  Dictionary inserts can *already* raise that error.

> I don't believe there is a way to fix this without breaking someones 
> application. The major differences I see between the two solutions is
>  that counting will break people's applications who are otherwise 
> following the documented api contract of dictionaries,

Do you have a case in mind where legitimate user data (not crafted as
part of a DoS attack) would trip the 1000-collision limit?  How likely is
it that such cases exist in already-deployed applications, compared to
the known breakage in existing applications due to hash randomization?

> and randomization will break people's applications who are violating 
> the documented api contract of dictionaries.
> 
> Personally I feel that the lesser of two evils is to reward those who
>  followed the documentation, and not reward those who didn't.

Except that I think your set is purely hypothetical, while the second set
is *lots* of deployed applications.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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