cue hash

[Chuck]

class X
    cue hash as int
        return ...

• One of the few cues that is externally visible.
• Implements GetHashCode() on .NET and hashCode() on JVM.
• Requires is override or base.hash call.
• def hash as int and def hash should give warnings about cues.

[kobi7]

Hello,
What about something like this:
 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/763731/gethashcode-extension-method

meaning, getHashCode can be built-in, and if the user would like to override it, s/he can.
I suggest "baking-in" during compilation, all the instance variables, either as an object list, or a dictionary<string,object> (key=varName, value=varValue (the reference)).
(every class will have that built-in dictionary)

this can also be used for quick serialization (no need for reflection) and also for a clone method. (new, for i = 0 .. new.list.length -> new.list[i] = this.list[i], ret new)

[kobi7]

oops, the code should have been this.list[i].clone
the method name might be better as 'copy'

[Charles]

I doubt that it should be baked in as highly mutable classes rarely benefit or should even have a well defined hash code.

Note that we have HashCodeUtils? in the std lib (Cobra.Core):
http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/browser/cobra/trunk/Source/Cobra.Core/HashCodeUtils.cobra

which makes it easy to create a hash code from multiple sources.