Determine if two values are equal.

For any two non-null objects x and y, x.equals(y) may be written as:

x == y 

Implementations should respect the constraints that:

• if x===y then x==y (reflexivity),
• if x==y then y==x (symmetry),
• if x==y and y==z then x==z (transitivity).

Furthermore it is recommended that implementations ensure that if x==y then x and y have the same concrete class.

A class which explicitly refines equals() is said to support value equality, and the equality operator == is considered much more meaningful for such classes than for a class which simply inherits the default implementation of identity equality from Identifiable.

Note that an implementation of equals() that always returns false does satisfy the constraints given above. Therefore, in very rare cases where there is no reasonable definition of value equality for a class, for example, function references (Callable), it is acceptable for equals() to be defined to return false for every argument.