So, Larry assisted by Audrey explained the purpose of === vs eqv vs =:=. It makes sense now, but I still feel that as far as ergonomics go this is not perfect. Then again, I trust that Larry's opinion is probably better and at the very least more likely to be accepted than mine ;-) [1]
So, this is the deal:
=== is for checking immutable equality. This is a bit nasty to
explain.
eqv is going to be deep comparison, like most of us thought '==='
was going to be (I had initially thought that eqv was renamed to ===
when === started popping up).
=:= is something completely different, but will be easy to explain
in a moment.
What it means for something to be immutable can be demonstrated
rather easily here:
my $x = 10;
my $y = $x;
$x === $y; # true
$y++:
$x === $y; # false
Since numbers (and also strings) are "simple" values, that are not
modified in place (at least not explicitly), but are instead copied
and modified or just replaced when you change them, the .id of the
thing inside $x and $y is bound to the value.
You could rationalize this such that .id is the same if and only if
it doesn't actually matter (and never will matter) if the value is
in the same chunk of memory or a separate one, as far as the runtime
is concerned.
Arrays and hashes, and other complex types can, on the other hand
have parts of them transformed without first cloning everything
(which is precisely why they're useful).
The underlying idea is that === can be used to test if two values are
*always* going to be the same (if they're container gets a different
value in it that does not mean that they are no longer the same).
eqv, on the other hand is used to test whether or not two values are
the same right now, without making any implications as to what their
values will be later on, since they may mutate. This is deceivingly
like == and eq if you assume that numbers and strings are changed,
instead of replaced.
Lastly, =:= is really variable($x) === variable($y) - that is,
whether or not the container is the same value or not. This
basically checks whether either $x or $y was at some point bound to
the other, or in specific situations whether they're tied to the
same representation even if they are different containers.
Overridding .id is useful for when you want to imply that two items
are exactly the same and will always be the same and will never
change as far as their comparison is concerned (both eqv and ===
will always be true), even if the default implementation of === does
not return true due to technical details. === can be thought of as
.id eqv .id.
I hope this clears things up, and thanks again, Larry and Audrey, for
clearing this up.
I'd like for someone with better english skills to summarize into an
S03 patch please. It needs to be much shorter =)
[1] My preferred ergonomics:
1. eqv goes away
2. what was eqv is renamed to ===
3. === becomes =:=, which has a "constant" feel to it
4. =:= is rarely useful IMHO, so you can just type
variable($x) =:= variable($y)
Ciao
--
Yuval Kogman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://nothingmuch.woobling.org 0xEBD27418
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