SRFI-69 proposes the following hash procedures
hash consistent with equal?
string-hash consistent with string=?
string-ci-hash consistent with string-ci=?
symbol-hash consistent with eq? on symbols only
These names seem to have been chosen to highlight the
name of the type of object being hashed. Better would be
a naming convention that makes explicit the link between the
hash procedure and the comparison procedure (after all there
are many application-specific ways to define the equality of
two values of a given type). I would suggest the following
(taken from Gambit):
SRFI-69
equal?-hash hash
eqv?-hash no equivalent
eq?-hash no equivalent, but subsumes symbol-hash
string=?-hash string-hash
string-ci?-hash string-ci-hash
This consistent naming scheme reduces the programmer's
"intellectual clutter".
I suggest dropping the symbol-hash procedure, for the more
general eq?-hash procedure. Moreover, eqv?-hash can be used
when the keys are numeric (re: make-integer-hash-table).
I also suggest adding the constraint that hashing a string
x with string=?-hash and a symbol y with equal?-hash, eqv?-hash,
or eq?-hash, must yield the same hash number when
(string=? x (symbol->string y)). This is useful
when dealing with textual data in a mixed string/symbol
representation, that is you need to use something like
the following key comparison procedure
(define (text-equal? x y)
(string=?
(if (string? x) x (symbol->string x))
(if (string? y) y (symbol->string y))))
then you can still use the default equal?-hash.
Marc