Identity vs equality (was Re: [Newbies] Assignment)
Andreas Raab
andreas.raab at gmx.de
Sat Aug 11 18:59:45 UTC 2007
stephane ducasse wrote:
>> In 3.10 they both evaluate to true.
>
> Why does it make sense?
Symmetry. If foo = bar but bar ~= foo you end up in strange situations.
Like here:
s1 := Set new.
s1 add: #foo.
s1 add: 'foo'.
s2 := Set new.
s2 add: 'foo'.
s2 add: #foo.
Do you expect these sets to have the same number of elements? If so, you
better make sure comparisons are symmetric.
> I do not understand why #'hello' as a symbol should be = to 'hello'.
Because 'hello' is equal to #'hello' as a symbol.
> It would have been good that such an important change would have been
> discussed on the mailing-list.
It has. Before your time. The original version of the method has a stamp
saying "di 4/11/2000". And if you look at the archives of Squeak-dev in
the second half of 2000 I'm sure you'll find the discussion.
Cheers,
- Andreas
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