Looking at the std::string comparison operators, they all seem to be using std::string::compare directly even in cases where the string lengths must match. Comparing the string lengths before the std::string::compare call in std::string::operator==/!= would avoid doing a byte-for-byte comparison in most cases where unequal strings are compared.
A quick glance at the object code shows that the new conditional replaces the std::min in std::string::compare in addition to reducing the code size slightly, when compiled with -O2. Or is there some specific reasons why this isn't done? Jari Sundell
