NEWBIE Question: == vs =?

John M McIntosh johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com
Wed Jan 24 20:21:09 UTC 2001


>What exactly is the difference between the two boolean mesages: #== and #= ?
>
>Can someone give an example where #== results in true but not #= ?
>(and vice versa?)
>
>Much thanks ahead of time,
>Phuong Bui

If you look
Interpreter>>primitiveEquivalent

	| thisObject otherObject |
	otherObject _ self popStack.
	thisObject _ self popStack.
	self pushBool: thisObject = otherObject

This is invoked from the only one implementor of #== in the Squeak image.

ProtoObject>> ==

== anObject
	"Primitive. Answer whether the receiver and the argument are the same
	object (have the same object pointer). Do not redefine the 
message == in
	any other class! Essential. No Lookup. Do not override in any subclass.
	See Object documentation whatIsAPrimitive."

	<primitive: 110>
	self primitiveFailed


The "C" code produced for the VM just checks to see if the address of 
this object is = to the address of that object. If they are then of 
course they are the same object.


Now to answer your questions about #== true but #= false. Well you 
would need a broken #= to have that case. However the reverse of 
course can be true
#= is true, but of course #== can be false.

Now #= is implemented 55 times in the image and can be quite complex
= aCT
	self class == aCT class ifFalse:[^false].
	^rAdd = aCT rAdd and:[rMul = aCT rMul and:[
		gAdd = aCT gAdd and:[gMul = aCT gMul and:[
			bAdd = aCT bAdd and:[bMul = aCT bMul and:[
				aAdd = aCT aAdd and:[aMul = aCT aMul]]]]]]]

If you have a bug where side effects of a message sent could alter an 
object, then sure you could have #== is true but #= is false because 
the object gets changed while checking it's state, but it's really a 
bug. I guess also having a high priority process alter the object 
well testing #= could also raise issues.
-- 
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John M. McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com> 1-800-477-2659
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