What is the difference between #== and #equal? ?

In programming, the difference between == and equal? varies depending on the language, but generally, these operators/methods are used to compare objects or values in terms of identity and equality.

In Ruby

In Ruby, == and equal? serve different purposes:

• == is the basic equality operator used to check if the values of two objects are the same. It is often overridden in child classes to provide class-specific meaning of equality. For example, two different String objects containing the same sequence of characters will return true when compared with == because String overrides == to compare the content of the strings[1][4].

• equal? is used to check identity equality, meaning it returns true only if both operands refer to the exact same object instance in memory. This method is not commonly overridden, as it is meant to check object identity at the most fundamental level in Ruby's object model[1][4].

In Java

Although not directly asked, it's useful to note the distinction in Java as well, which often uses == and equals():

• == in Java is used for reference comparison, i.e., it checks if two references point to the same object in memory. This is similar to Ruby's equal?.

• equals() is a method in Java that, like R...