Maps with Expensive Keys

摘要

What's in a symbol name? Well, I'll tell you what it is. A lot of embarrassment, that's what—particularly if the name happens to be a poorly chosen symbol name. If you're thinking of some foul word left in my source code and found by a scrutinizing colleague months later, you're mistaken. (I always use Romanian interjections when I need a "variable name that's impossible to occur in normal source code," so I'm covered there.) The name I'm talking about is an innocuous A, and the opportunity for embarrassment showed itself right in front of some 80 people anxiously waiting for me to explain myself.