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Hi,

Included below is a copy of a message I sent to the py-tutor list. It
didn't garner much in the way of a solution and it was suggested that
this list might be helpful.

Thanks,

-----Forwarded Message-----
> From: Aaron Straup Cope <>
> To: pytutor <>
> Subject: creating bitmasks (for bloom filters)
> Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 08:49:20 -0400
>
> Hi,
>
> A quick introduction : I am mostly a Perl hacker, but I am teaching
> myself Python because it seems like the right tool for the job in
> question. [1] I am not, by any stretch, much of a math weenie.
>
> I am trying to port the Bloom::Filter Perl module [2] for use with my
> tool. I know that there is a "pybloom" sourceforge project [3] but
> licensing issues aside it's reliance on Unix math libs makes it
> problematic for use with a cross-platform GUI tool.
>
> At this point, my not very deep grasp of Python and my poor
> understanding of some basic compsci/math principles have combined to
> frustrate my efforts.
>
> I was hoping that the the Perl/Python operator and function set would be
> similar enough that, with only a few modifications, I could clone the
> B:F.pm package pretty much "as is". All other bugs aside, I am stuck
> trying to create a bitmask of a key :
>
> "Given a key, hashes it using the list of salts and returns a bitmask
> the same length as the Bloom filter. Note that Perl will pad the
> bitmask out with zeroes so it's a muliple of 8."
>
> # from the docs for the _make_bitmask method
>
> Specifically, it's not clear to me :
>
> * how to map the various Perl pack/unpack formats to their Python
> equivalents (things like Perl's "b*" which is "a bit string, in
> ascending bit order inside each byte" where "*" means to use all
> the bytes from the input field")
>
> * how to account for the fact that unpack returns a list in Perl and
> Python returns a string
>
> * how to pass a salt to the Python sha module
>
> * how to XOR the pieces of an unpacked sha digest (which may simply
> be a function of a bad format unpacking stuff)
>
> * A 'vec' [4] function in Python; does one exist?
>
> In short, I don't really have any idea what I'm doing
>
> As much as I relish the challenge purely on the grounds of learning new
> stuff I am starting to reach the point of irrational frustration and
> wanting to just get this done so I can move on to other things.
>
> The tool should be written in Python because it's the best choice for
> the job. The tool needs to be able to read/write Bloom Filters. Python
> needs a Bloom Filter library, so I will step up and write it. Except it
> appears to be beyond my skill level right now...
>
> Any thoughts, suggestions or clue-bats would be very much welcomed.
> Pointers to an already existing implementation that I've missed would be
> even better but I'll take what I can get.
>
> Thanks,
>
> ---
>
> [1]
> http://aaronland.info/weblog/categor...plication_the/
> [2] http://search.cpan.org/src/MCEGLOWS/...0.02/Filter.pm
> [3] http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/pybloom/
> [4] http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.8.4/pod/func/vec.html