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- While teaching a data structures course at University of California,
- Irvine, I developed a program called GPERF that generates perfect hash
- functions for sets of key words. A perfect hash function is simply:
-
- A hash function and a data structure that allows
- recognition of a key word in a set of words using
- exactly 1 probe into the data structure.
-
- The gperf.texinfo file explains how the program works, the form of the
- input, what options are available, and hints on choosing the best
- options for particular key word sets. The texinfo file is readable
- both via the GNU emacs `info' command, and is also suitable for
- typesetting with TeX.
-
- The enclosed Makefile creates the executable program ``gperf'' and
- also runs some tests.
-
- Output from the GPERF program is used to recognize reserved words in
- the GNU C, GNU C++, and GNU Pascal compilers, as well as with the GNU
- indent program.
-
- Happy hacking!
-
- Douglas C. Schmidt
-