Re: Please Cure My Ignorance (I know that may be difficult :-)) on Hash Functions

From: Paul Crowley (paul@JUNKCATCHER.ciphergoth.org)
Date: 02/20/03 

From: Paul Crowley <paul@JUNKCATCHER.ciphergoth.org>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 09:25:05 GMT

daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner) writes:

> Douglas A. Gwyn wrote:
> >That is only possible if the so-called function doesn't
> >return, period.
>
> And even then it's not a mathematical function.
> Computer scientists might call such an algorithm a
> "function" or a "procedure" or a "subroutine", but it's
> not what mathematicians would call a function.

...unless you consider that this (and other sorts of failure) map the
input onto a special symbol "bottom" (drawn as an upside-down T). 

-- 
  __  Paul Crowley
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