Bug #14437
Updated by nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada) almost 7 years ago
Here's extracted test sample: ~~~ruby ~~~ class Item def initialize(value) @value = value end def coerce(other) [Item.new(other), self] end def ==(other) Item.new("#{inspect} == #{other.inspect}") end def !=(other) Item.new("#{inspect} != #{other.inspect}") end def inspect "(#{@value})" end end a = Item.new("a") p [RUBY_VERSION, 42 == a, 42 != a, a == 42, a == a, a != 42, a != a] ~~~ I'd expect it to print: `["2.x.x", ((a) == 42), ((a) != 42), ((a) == 42), ((a) == (a)), ((a) != 42), ((a) != (a))]` What happens instead is: ~~~ ["1.9.3", ((a) == 42), false, ((a) == 42), ((a) == (a)), ((a) != 42), ((a) != (a))] ["2.2.0", ((a) == 42), false, ((a) == 42), ((a) == (a)), ((a) != 42), ((a) != (a))] ["2.3.3", ((a) == 42), false, ((a) == 42), ((a) == (a)), ((a) != 42), ((a) != (a))] ["2.4.1", true, false, ((a) == 42), ((a) == (a)), ((a) != 42), ((a) != (a))] ["2.5.0", true, false, ((a) == 42), ((a) == (a)), ((a) != 42), ((a) != (a))] ~~~ So != never used coerce, and now == doesn't use coerce either. Using Bignum value instead of 42 in this example breaks it even pre-2.4. So, the question is: * is using coerce like this not supported, and it was just an accident that it used to work? (and I should redefine Integer#== and Integer#!=) * or is it meant to work, and it's a ruby bug? For context, it's a problem for z3 gem, which builds big mathematical expressions like Z3.Int("a")+Z3.Int("b") == 4 and then uses Microsoft Z3 solver to solve them. Not being able to use == / != because of this issue would really reduce its usability. Using coerce this way works just fine with +, -, *, >=, etc., it's just == and != which don't work.