correct me if I'm wrong here, I have a new job and can't get the code, but
you (Alex) say..
The implementation [of URLName.equals()] in the Sun JavaMail breaks this by
not being
transitive (that is, it is possible for the equals method to have
a.equals(c) and b.equals(c), but not a.equals(b). The implementation I
used had the advantage that (a) it was transitive, and that (b) the
implementation of the method is more efficient for large numbers of
subclasses.
The only time a behavioural difference will be noted is if subclasses
of the offending object (URLName) are created.
Surely in this instance the easiest way to obtain the correct behaviour is
to delegate the equality to String.equals() and compare the internal STring
represanetaion of the called object with the toString() of the argument?
After all URLName is conceptually a nice example of a specialisation of
String, but owing to String's final nature it can't actually be a String,
on the other hand we can obtain the relevant effects of inheritance through
delegation.
d.
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