[ruby-talk:11576] Re: Array bugs?

> From: Ben Tilly [mailto:[e-mail]]
[...]
> The key difference is the addition of the checks for
> @@other_seen.  If you don't have that, then you get
> different results for this case:
> 
>     a = ["hello"]
>     b = (1..3).map {|x| a}
>     c = (1..3).map {|x| ["hello"])
>     p (b == c)
>     p (c == b)
> 
> Note that currently Ruby says these are equal.  With
> the method above Ruby says that they are different.
> Compare though what these two do:
> 
>     b[0].push "world"
>     c[0].push "world"
> 
> I think that calling them unequal is quite reasonable.
No Ben this is not reasonable (practical at least;-)
standard (ruby gives you)
------------------
[["hello"], ["hello"], ["hello"]]
[["hello"], ["hello"], ["hello"]]
"Now equal"
true
------------------
a = ["hello"]
b = (1..3).map {|x| a}
c = (1..3).map {|x| ["hello"]}

p b,c
p "Now equal", (b == c)
-----------------
Plenty of code relies on the  " b == c" semantics  - 
if you would change this all hell would break loose.

[...]
Christoph