I don’t think there is a formal definition. I’ve heard it described as “answers the same result when sent the same message” but that wouldn’t work for #’identityHash’, so I think it is whatever you say it is in your domain.
By the way, I try to avoid the term “equal” and use “equivalent” and “identical” to describe #’=‘ and #’==‘ respectively. James > On Aug 23, 2022, at 3:48 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > Anyone know of a book that goes in depth explaining `#=`? > > I've always wondered what "equal" is supposed to mean. > > For example, if I have two objects representing the same person, but one has > their webpage cached as state, they represent the same entity, and are > interchangeable in many contexts, but also have a difference that may be > important in other contexts. > > Is “equal” whatever you say it is in your domain, or is it a Smalltalk object > system concept? If the latter, what is the exact expectation? >
