Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Eric Sosman Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: "equals" - a bad name? Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2016 20:56:15 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 27 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2016 00:56:24 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="22e5ab429c5a4bb738666b9c52e40d69"; logging-data="17764"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+6qXzWq7TtuRXYCG02ss5n" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.2.0 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:sXnIKvhIRGLFtuO2+lc1ZorFkkg= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:35314 On 8/13/2016 7:25 PM, Stefan Ram wrote: > »a == b« and »a.equals( b )« have two different meanings > in Java. Fairly enough, they are written in different > ways in Java. > > But what about pronunciation? I believe that »a == b« > sometimes is pronunced »a equals b«. And »a.equals( b )« > would be pronounced »a equals b«, too! So now, in talks or > on the phone (possibly, when thinking in words), the > distinction is lost! > > Therefore, »equals« might better have been another name, > like, for example, »equivalent«. So, we would have »a == b« > and »a.equivalent( b )«. Good point! I'll hop into my handy time machine, ZROOP! back twenty-something years, and make them change it. Oh, wait: My time machine uses the Date class, and damn' near the whole thing is deprecated! So, unfortunately, I can't fix things for you -- not just now, anyhow. As soon as I will have to been fixed my time machine, I'll be gotten back to you with a downdate. -- esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid "Don't be afraid of work. Make work afraid of you." -- TLM