Bug or feature?

[Shmuel Tomer]

In matlab:

   >> [1 2] == [1]
 
   ans =
 
        1     0
 
   >> [1 2] == []
 
   ans =
 
        0
     
but in octave:

   octave:1> [1 2] == [1]
   ans =
 
     1  0
 
   octave:2> [1 2] == []
   error: operator ==: nonconformant arguments (op1 is 1x2, op2 is 0x0)

Is this a bug or a feature?

In other words, would it be correct to reverse the order of the
following two tests in the macro MX_MX_BOOL_OP (src/ops.h, lines
94-100)? 

      if (m1_nr != m2_nr || m1_nc != m2_nc) \
        { \
          gripe_nonconformant ("operator " op, m1_nr, m1_nc, m2_nr, m2_nc); \
          return Matrix (); \
        } \
      if (m1_nr == 0 || m1_nc == 0) \
        return empty_result; \

Would that have (disastrous) effects, other than to provide a Matlab compatible
behavior? I don't prefer this behavior per se, but being able to use octave in
my site may depend on wheter the users need to go through the existing zillion
scripts and change every occurrence of 
        if myString == '' 
to
        if strcmp(myString, '')
        

Thanks!