hash tables in objects, or creating variables on the fly

[Dr. Paul Box]

Hello group

I have been working on a problem where I would like to have an object create 
variables "on the fly", much like is possible in perl.  One possible solution 
suggested to my by a NeXT-Step programmer is that this could be done using hash 
tables. 

In my Objective-C reference book, there is a brief (one sentance) mention of a 
HashTable object in NeXT's Objective-C, but nothing else.  In the online 
manuals, I get into a loop when I click onto the entry describing "internal 
hash 
tables" (it simply kicks me back to the table of contents).

My question has two parts:

1- Has anyone on this group worked with hash tables in their objects?  could 
you 
point me to infomration on what they are and how to use them?

2- Is there another way in swarm to give an object a new state variable at 
runtime (ie, without editing the source code and recompiling things?)  I have 
been thinking about ways of fudging this using strings or linked lists, but 
they 
seem slow and awkward.

Any ideas would be appreciated

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