Added Identity Short Circuit to equals methods

[software-is-art]

Summary

• This is a micro optimisation for when equals is called with a reference to the same object
• This is to avoid having consumers of equals performing this check themselves

Outstanding Concerns

Not sure how sensitive this code path will be to the extra branch. I would guess that it's fairly branch predictor friendly.

[dweiss]

Thanks. I was never a big fan of the this==other check - the gains seem to be in so marginal use cases that I almost never bother. But sure, why not. Can you add a changes entry to the patch and mention yourself as the contributor? Thanks.

[software-is-art]

Will do that first thing tomorrow.

I agree that in most cases it’s not going to be noticed. It’s really only because the use case we have at work is very sensitive to variance.

[dweiss]

Thanks @software-is-art

[software-is-art]

You’re welcome! Thanks for the great comms 👍