> Big Insight #2 is that atoi() behaves as a (bad) hash function on ordinary tex... | Hacker News

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		zahlman 87 days ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes (2023) > Big Insight #2 is that atoi() behaves as a (bad) hash function on ordinary text. It consumes characters and updates a 16-bit integer. I could have sworn I remembered atoi() being defined to return 0 for invalid input (i.e. text not representing an integer in base ten).

MobiusHorizons 86 days ago [–]

That would be true of one using a libc, but in a boot sector, you only have the bios, so the atoi being referenced is the one defined in c near the beginning of the article

zahlman 86 days ago | [–]

Ah, I somehow skipped over that exact code block on first read.

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