[Bug 3224] Inequality

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=3224





------- Comment #1 from davep@iit.edu  2006-05-09 18:04 -------
(In reply to comment #0)

> In the second paragraph of 2.2,

I believe you mean 2.2.2.

>                  what does the operator "<>" mean? (Not
> equal? Not comparable?) Is it the same as the "/=" operator used in the
> second paragraph of the subsequent Note?

They are not quite the same, but in this case '<> NaN' should be replaced by
'not equal to itself'.

> Reading on, I see that the
> operators are defined later. A forward reference to the definition would be
> useful.

I'm not sure it's necessary for a note.  There is nothing special about the use
of '=' for equality; the final paragraph just confirms that the symbol means
what it usually means.

> In 2.2.2 and 2.2.3, the term "unequal" is used, but I can't find a
> definition. In particular, it's not clear whether non-comparable pairs of
> values are considered unequal.

In common usage, "unequal" means "not equal".  Do you really think this needs
elaboration?  I suppose the word could be eliminated everywhere, but is
that worth the effort?

Given that, "[Definition:]  Two values that are neither equal, less-than, nor
greater-than are incomparable" surely implies that incomparable values are
not equal, hence unequal.

Received on Tuesday, 9 May 2006 18:05:13 UTC