Re: [Emacs-diffs] master 9dd95bf: * lisp/emacs-lisp/pcase.el (pcase--u1): Fix bignums

[Stefan Monnier]

>> > Stefan, this change needs a suitable change in the docs (both the doc
>> > string and the ELisp manual): they still claim integers are compared
>> > using 'equal', which AFAIU is now inaccurate.
>> AFAIK using `eql` gives the same result as comparing with `equal`:
>> It's just an internal optimization that is transparent to the user.
> That's so, but I find documentation that explicitly calls out 'equal'
> misleading when the code actually invokes 'eql' instead.

I don't understand why you feel that way.

Would you feel the same if `pcase` always used `equal` and the
optimization to `eql` were performed in the byte-compiler instead?

> Maybe we should make the text less explicit then?

I can't think of any way to make the text less explicit without making
it either too vague or a lot more verbose.  The semantics we want to
promise to the user is exactly that of `equal`, so we'd have to
say something like

    it'll behave like `equal` tho it might use something equivalent
    under the hood anyway

which seems just more verbose with no clear benefit.

To be clear, I'm not opposing such a change: it'd make the doc worse for
me, but I'm ill-placed to judge what's best for the other readers.


        Stefan