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This lookahead is very similar to the "lazy matching" used in Lempel-Ziv compressors! https://fastcompression.blogspot.com/2010/12/parsing-level-1...

Did you compare it to Buzhash? I assume gearhash is faster given the simpler per iteration structure. (also, rand/v2's seeded generators might be better for gear init than mt19937)

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Yeah, GEAR hashing is simple enough that I haven't considered using anything else.

Regarding the RNG used to seed the GEAR table: I don't think it actually makes that much of a difference. You only use it once to generate 2 KB of data (256 64-bit constants). My suspicion is that using some nothing-up-my-sleeve numbers (e.g., the first 2048 binary digits of π) would work as well.

The random number generation could match the first 2048 digits of pi, so if it works with _any_ random number...

If it doesn't work with any random number, then some work better than others then intuitively you can find a (or a set of) best seed(s).

Right, just one fewer module dependency using the stdlib RNG.

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