X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=week9.mdwn;h=a7b3278f476fbc3c1b30f3fc6406710291e874d7;hp=0f108e83eb9b27423db7d41d60d73f08f494e606;hb=e4165e16984feee9c962872ac9319ce5c4b109c2;hpb=5fbc3900d20c41f0104bc6f29ea8ca1b16fc4172 diff --git a/week9.mdwn b/week9.mdwn index 0f108e83..a7b3278f 100644 --- a/week9.mdwn +++ b/week9.mdwn @@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ Programming languages tend to provide a bunch of mutation-related capabilities a Isn't this interesting? Intuitively, elsewhere in math, you might think that qualitative indicernibility always suffices for numerical identity. Well, perhaps this needs discussion. In some sense the imaginary numbers ι and -ι are qualitatively indiscernible, but numerically distinct. However, arguably they're not *fully* qualitatively indiscernible. They don't both bear all the same relations to ι for instance. But then, if we include numerical identity as a relation, then `ycell` and `xcell` don't both bear all the same relations to `ycell`, either. Yet there is still a useful sense in which they can be understood to be qualitatively equal---at least, at a given stage in a computation. - Terminological note: in OCaml, `=` and `<>` express the qualitative (in)discernibility relations, also expressed in Scheme with `equal?`. In OCaml, `==` and `!=` express the numerical (non)identity relations, also expressed in Scheme with `eq?`. `=` also has other syntactic roles in OCaml, such as in the form `let x = value in ...`. In other languages, like C and Python, `=` is commonly used just for assignment (of either of the sorts we've now seen: `let x = value in ...` or `change x to value in ...`). The symbols `==` and `!=` are commonly used to express qualitative (in)discernibility in these languages. Python expresses numerical (non)identity with `is` and `is not`. What an unattractive mess. Don't get me started on Haskell (qualitative non-identity is `/=`) and Lua (physical (non)identity is `==` and `~=`). + Terminological note: in OCaml, `=` and `<>` express the qualitative (in)discernibility relations, also expressed in Scheme with `equal?`. In OCaml, `==` and `!=` express the numerical (non)identity relations, also expressed in Scheme with `eq?`. `=` also has other syntactic roles in OCaml, such as in the form `let x = value in ...`. In other languages, like C and Python, `=` is commonly used just for assignment (of either of the sorts we've now seen: `let x = value in ...` or `change x to value in ...`). The symbols `==` and `!=` are commonly used to express qualitative (in)discernibility in these languages. Python expresses numerical (non)identity with `is` and `is not`. What an unattractive mess. Don't get me started on Haskell (qualitative discernibility is `/=`) and Lua (physical (non)identity is `==` and `~=`). Note that neither of the equality predicates here being considered are the same as the "hyperequals" predicate mentioned above. For example, in the following (fictional) language: