From: Robert Dober Date: 2006-06-27T23:21:59+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby and Java equality usage ------=_Part_64534_292895.1151418115819 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Hopefully I am not confused about the documentation I would hate to create such a fuss, let us see now: The official ruby documentation is on http://www.ruby-doc.org/ with a link to the 1.8.4 core API here: http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/ which has in turn the documentation for class Object here: http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Object.html and in particular the documentation on Object#=3D=3D here : http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Object.html#M0014= 12 I am copying and pasting this documentation (again ;) into this post: [BEGIN COPY] obj =3D=3D other =3D> true or false obj.equal?(other) =3D> true or false obj.eql?(other) =3D> true or false Equality=97At the Object = level, =3D=3D returns true only if *obj* and *other* are the same object. Typicall= y, this method is overridden in descendent classes to provide class-specific meaning. Unlike =3D=3D, the equal? method should never be overridden by subclasses: = it is used to determine object identity (that is, a.equal?(b) iff a is the same object as b). The eql? method returns true if *obj* and *anObject* have the same value. Used by Hash to test members for equality. For objects of class Object, eql? is synonymous with =3D=3D. Subclasses normally continue this tradition= , but there are exceptions. Numerictypes, for example, perform type conversion across =3D=3D, but not across eql?, so: 1 =3D=3D 1.0 #=3D> true 1.eql? 1.0 #=3D> false [END COPY] Apart from talking about the #equal? method it states clearly that *normally* the #eql? stays a synonym for #=3D=3D and we can conclude tha= t... I cannot read!!!!! (in order to stay polite with myself). ty very much All my appologies to Alex and Robert and everyone else following this. I guess I will change my signature to "Trust me I know what I am doing" :( Robert ------=_Part_64534_292895.1151418115819--