Standardize use of int types across project

[twitu]

Currently different types of ints are being used. For e.g.

1. int for config constants
2. uint64 for key values
3. uint32 for HashTable attributes

What is the best approach to be consistent across int type usage?

[neelkshah]

We should go for int for comparable/countable variables and uint64 for the integer data type in my opinion. The latter will allow for a larger address space and also works well as memory alignment goes

[neelkshah]

Also, do we have any specific reasons for defining hash table attributes as uint32?

[twitu]

1. Going with unsigned integer because none of the hash table attributes need negative values.
2. 32 or 64 can be decided, but we need some reference to see which one of them is better suited to memory alignment.

[neelkshah]

Let's go with uint64. It will allow us to use a larger address space. If at all we do run into memory issues later (which we shouldn't), we'll revert to uint32

[twitu]

Anyway to parameterize this as a compile time configuration?

…

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 4:13 PM Neel Shah ***@***.***> wrote: Let's go with uint64. It will allow us to use a larger address space. If at all we do run into memory issues later (which we shouldn't), we'll revert to uint32 — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFQ7JWXKCSQC2HBYX3JS47DSFSO5VANCNFSM4RJ2LT7A> .

[neelkshah]

Even if there is, it will be unsafe. These changes will be in a small number of files (linkedlist, hashtable). All the layers above will be agnostic to this.

[neelkshah]

We can define an alias for the type in one central location and use it everywhere, and then just make changes to it if need be.

[twitu]

I'll make the changes and use uint64 everywhere. Still it's interesting to see from a design perspective, if types can be parameterized at a high level.

…

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 5:20 PM Neel Shah ***@***.***> wrote: Even if there is, it will be unsafe. These changes will be in a small number of files (linkedlist, hashtable). All the layers above will be agnostic to this. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#9 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFQ7JWWAR2H7SM6KPIY2TUDSFSWYBANCNFSM4RJ2LT7A> .

[neelkshah]

Imo the aliasing option is the cleanest