Re: numeric emulation and the rich comparison operators

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  • Ethan Furman

    Re: numeric emulation and the rich comparison operators

    Gabriel Genellina wrote:
    En Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:37:42 -0300, Ethan Furman <ethan@stonelea f.us>
    escribi�:
    >
    >Greetings, List!
    >>
    >Still working on my Measure class, and my next question is... (drum
    >roll please ;)
    >>
    >What are the advantages of using __[eq|ne|lt|gt|le| ge]__ vs __cmp__?
    >
    >
    If your objects obey the trichotomy law (an object MUST BE less than,
    greater than, or equal to another one, and there is no other
    possibility) then __cmp__ is enough, and easier to define than all the
    rich comparison operations.
    In other cases, __cmp__ is not suitable: by example, complex numbers
    can't define "greater than" [in a way that preserves the meaning for
    real numbers]; you can only use "equal" or "not equal". You can't use
    __cmp__ for this, because it *has* to return either >0 or <0 (implying
    "greater than" or "less than"). In this case it's best to use the rich
    comparison operators: define __eq__ and __ne__ and make all other
    comparisons between complex numbers raise an exception.
    >
    That's exactly the information I needed. Thanks!

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