Re: Scheme style auto-resizing hashtable (fwd)

[Chris.Bitmead@misys.com.au]

 > Paper dictionaries do tend to be in alphabetical order, but that is
 > merely an implementation detail. The reason it is in alphabetical
 > order is *not* so you can read all the entries in alphabetical
 > order, but rather to facilitate random access.

>True for word -> meaning mapping, but dictionaries can also be used
>for word -> spelling.  If one can at least spell the beginning of the
>word, one looks it up & scans the word until finding the wanted one.

But having a dictionary in alphabetical order for spelling correction is
still an implementation detail. And it's a very poor implementation at
that.
If you know how to spell a whole word but don't know the first two letters
you are lost. Computers can do better than that. Anyone want to build a
dictionary with a fuzzy-logic search? :-)

>Not that this is a reason to not call hash tables dictionaries, but if
we're >going to discuss dictionaries, let's get it right.