From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Return-Path: <elnatan@cs.umd.edu>
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr
X-Spam-Level: *
X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,DNS_FROM_RFC_ABUSE 
	autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3
X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr
Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr
Received: from mail4-relais-sop.national.inria.fr (mail4-relais-sop.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.105])
	by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 720A8BC37
	for <caml-list@yquem.inria.fr>; Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:26:11 +0200 (CEST)
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AlgCAH5Cb0qACH+ThWdsb2JhbACaCAEBAQoLCgUVqnmHKYhPhBAF
X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.43,285,1246831200"; 
   d="scan'208";a="44076154"
Received: from server-nat-4.cs.umd.edu (HELO bacon.cs.umd.edu) ([128.8.127.147])
  by mail4-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr with ESMTP/TLS/DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA; 29 Jul 2009 03:25:41 +0200
X-CSD-MailScanner-Watermark: 1249435539.57924@JIGmh2jC6vLlgltgYWeRIw
Received: from webmail.cs.umd.edu (newman.cs.umd.edu [172.24.0.4])
	by bacon.cs.umd.edu (8.13.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id n6T1PbQk030772
	for <caml-list@yquem.inria.fr>; Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:25:37 -0400
Received: from 208.59.169.96
        (SquirrelMail authenticated user elnatan)
        by webmail.cs.umd.edu with HTTP;
        Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:25:37 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <1501.208.59.169.96.1248830737.squirrel@webmail.cs.umd.edu>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:25:37 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Physical counterpart to Pervasives.compare?
From: "Elnatan Reisner" <elnatan@cs.umd.edu>
To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr
User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.10a
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal
X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.0 (bacon.cs.umd.edu [172.24.3.34]); Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:25:37 -0400 (EDT)
X-Spam: no; 0.00; pervasives:01 pervasives:01 annotations:01 polymorphic:01 int:01 int:01 let:03 let:03 structure:07 rather:08 i'm:09 magic:10 magic:10 obj:11 obj:11 

Is there something that can complete this analogy:
(=) is to (==) as Pervasives.compare is to ___?

That is, is there a polymorphic total ordering with respect to *physical*
entities, rather than to their structure?

I'm afraid of getting into trouble with Obj.magic, but what would this do:
let f (x:'a) (y:'a) = compare (Obj.magic x) (Obj.magic y)
? Or would annotations make any difference:
let f (x:'a) (y:'a) = compare (Obj.magic x : int) (Obj.magic y : int)

-Elnatan