String interning (WAS: SAX2/Java: Towards a final form)

[Clark C. Evans]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, David Brownell wrote:
> > A java compiler could, for instance, take:
> > 
> >   lhs.equals(rhs)
> > 
> > and compile it as
> > 
> >   ( lhs == rhs | lhs.equals(rhs) )
> 
> Any implementation of "equals" that doesn't
> first test for "==" has serious problems; and
> I include the String.equals implementations
> up to JDK 1.1.6 or so when I say that.
> 
> Even so, method invocation is never free, and it's
> appropriate to ensure that it can be (sometimes)
> eliminated directly in the source code.

If I remember the rules, if the first member of
an alternation is true, then the second member
is not evaluated.  Thus, the above would not
incur a method invocation unless the strings
were not interned.

But, in general, I dig the point. 

Clark


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