Re: [PATCH] Implement `equal' for hash tables

Björn Lindqvist [13/Aug  3:47pm +02] wrote:
> Den ons 5 aug. 2026 kl 11:36 skrev Sean Whitton <[email protected]>:
>>
>> Nick Alcock [04/Aug  9:16pm +01] wrote:
>> > Hash tables are equal if they have equal atoms, weakness, and equality
>> > and hash functions.
>> >
>> > (This also means that equal of structures which contain hash tables is
>> > useful now, too, which is really the reason I implemented this: right
>> > now, hash tables are a sort of poison pill which render any object into
>> > which they are inserted unequal with all others.  No more.)
>>
>> Is it useful in a programming language for hash table objects to be
>> directly comparable like this?  I'm not sure that it is.
>
> Yes, it is extremely useful.

I think we'd really like to see examples.  I don't think I have ever
done it so I have a hard time believing "extremely".

> To the best of my knowledge, there is not a single programming
> language which distinguishes between equality and identity created
> since Java that does not support comparing hash tables for
> equality.

Looks like Python has it.  Perl doesn't.

-- 
Sean Whitton