I'm learning about operator overloading in C++, and I see that == and != are simply some special functions which can be customized for user-defined types. My concern is, though, why are there two separate definitions needed? I thought that if a == b is true, then a != b is automatically false, and vice versa, and there is no other possibility, because, by definition, a != b is !(a == b). And I couldn't imagine any situation in which this wasn't true. But perhaps my imagination is limited or I am ignorant of something?
我知道我可以用一个定义另一个，但这不是我要问的。我也没有问通过值和单位来比较对象之间的区别。或者两个对象是否可以同时相等和不相等(这绝对不是一个选项!这些事情是相互排斥的)。我想问的是:
有没有可能在这种情况下，问两个对象是否相等的问题是有意义的，但问它们不相等的问题是没有意义的?(无论是从用户的角度，还是从实现者的角度)
如果没有这种可能性，那么究竟为什么c++将这两个操作符定义为两个不同的函数呢?
通过自定义操作符的行为，您可以使它们按照您的要求进行操作。
你可能希望自定义一些东西。例如，您可能希望自定义一个类。可以通过检查特定属性来比较该类的对象。了解了这种情况后，您可以编写一些只检查最小值的特定代码，而不是检查整个对象中每个属性的每一位。
Imagine a case where you can figure out that something is different just as fast, if not faster, than you can find out something is the same. Granted, once you figure out whether something is the same or different, then you can know the opposite simply by flipping a bit. However, flipping that bit is an extra operation. In some cases, when code gets re-executed a lot, saving one operation (multiplied by many times) can have an overall speed increase. (For instance, if you save one operation per pixel of a megapixel screen, then you've just saved a million operations. Multiplied by 60 screens per second, and you save even more operations.)
Hvd的回答提供了一些额外的例子。
我只回答你问题的第二部分，即:
如果没有这种可能性，那么究竟为什么c++将这两个操作符定义为两个不同的函数呢?
允许开发人员重载两者是有意义的一个原因是性能。您可以通过同时实现==和!=来允许优化。那么x != y可能比!(x == y)便宜。一些编译器可能能够为您优化它，但也可能不能，特别是当您有涉及大量分支的复杂对象时。
即使在Haskell中，开发人员非常重视法律和数学概念，仍然允许重载==和/=，正如您可以在这里看到的(http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.9.0.0/docs/Prelude.html#v:-61--61-):
$ ghci
GHCi, version 7.10.2: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ :? for help
λ> :i Eq
class Eq a where
(==) :: a -> a -> Bool
(/=) :: a -> a -> Bool
-- Defined in `GHC.Classes'
这可能被认为是微观优化，但在某些情况下可能是合理的。
