Re: [Caml-list] Physical counterpart to Pervasives.compare?

[Alain Frisch <alain@frisch.fr>]

On 7/29/2009 3:25 AM, Elnatan Reisner wrote:
> 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?

Not really. The physical location of heap values is not stable (because 
of the GC), so you cannot use it as a total ordering.

It may be useful to know that the generic structural comparison has a 
physical behavior for OCaml objects (it compares their unique ids). So 
wrapping your values inside objects can be a good trick to get physical 
comparison (and hashing), as in:

class ['a] physical_reference init = object
   val mutable current : 'a = init
   method get = current
   method set x = current <- x
end


-- Alain