README revision 18214 
1While teaching a data structures course at University of California,
2Irvine, I developed a program called GPERF that generates perfect hash
3functions for sets of key words.  A perfect hash function is simply:
4 
5          A hash function and a data structure that allows
6          recognition of a key word in a set of words using
7          exactly 1 probe into the data structure.
8 
9The gperf.texinfo file explains how the program works, the form of the
10input, what options are available, and hints on choosing the best
11options for particular key word sets.  The texinfo file is readable
12both via the GNU emacs `info' command, and is also suitable for
13typesetting with TeX.  The texinfo.tex macros needed to run 
14gperf.texinfo through TeX are available in the GNU GCC release.  If 
15you don't have access to these please email me and I'll send them to
16you (about 75k).
17 
18The enclosed Makefile creates the executable program ``gperf'' and
19also runs some tests.
20 
21Output from the GPERF program is used to recognize reserved words in
22the GNU C, GNU C++, and GNU Pascal compilers, as well as with the GNU
23indent program.
24 
25Happy hacking!
26 
27Douglas C. Schmidt
28schmidt@ics.uci.edu
29