This comparison was part of MiscPrimitivePlugin.
MiscPrimitivePlugin is a false good idea:
Smalltalk fallback code = VMMaker (slang) source

Unfortunately, this is an illusion because unlike the C source inclusions in ST/X we don't have dynamic slang compilation!
The consequence is that source code is not managed in VMMaker specific package, but in a dialect specific/version specific package!
Squeak/Pharo/Cuis/Newspeak may all have a different version of String at image side.
This is making VMMaker recipe for code generation more fragile than necessary (and not easily portable to Pharo/Cuis/whatever...).

It seems to me that Clement did start a rewrite of essential primitives into proper plugin...
The plan was then to retract support of MiscPrimitivePlugin after a grace period (after all, these are optional primitives).


Le��lun. 16 sept. 2019 ����13:39, Esteban Maringolo <emaringolo@gmail.com> a ��crit��:
I haven't followed nor maintained the SortFunctions library, but it
relied heavily on the response of that method, by means of the
"spaceship operator" ( #<=>), I think that Sven later changed such
operator to "threeWayCompareTo:".

I don't know whether the primitive is available now, it wasn't back then.

Regards,

Esteban A. Maringolo

On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 3:52 AM ducasse <stepharo@netcourrier.com> wrote:
>
> I see
>
> threeWayCompareTo: aString
>�� �� �� �� ��"Do a three-way comparison between the receiver and anotherObject, returning
>�� �� �� �� ��-1 if self < anotherObject
>�� �� �� �� ��0 if self = anotherObject
>�� �� �� �� ��1 if self > anotherObject
>�� �� �� �� ��This assumes a total order in accordance with the mathematical law of trichotomy.
>�� �� �� �� ��See also:�� http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-way_comparison"
>
>�� �� �� �� �� ^ (self compare: self with: aString collated: AsciiOrder) - 2
>
> And I thought that we got a new primitive returning -101 directly
> Is it not the case?
>
> Stef
>
>
> String>>compare: string1 with: string2 collated: order
>
>�� �� �� �� ��"'abc' = 'abc' asWideString >>> true"
>�� �� �� �� ��"'abc' asWideString = 'abc' >>> true"
>�� �� �� �� ��"(ByteArray with: 97 with: 0 with: 0 with: 0) asString ~= 'a000' asWideString >>> true"
>�� �� �� �� ��"('abc' sameAs: 'aBc' asWideString) >>> true"
>�� �� �� �� ��"('aBc' asWideString sameAs: 'abc') >>> true"
>�� �� �� �� ��"('a000' asWideString ~= (ByteArray with: 97 with: 0 with: 0 with: 0) asString) >>> true"
>�� �� �� �� ��"((ByteArray with: 97 with: 0 with: 0 with: 0) asString sameAs: 'Abcd' asWideString) >>> false"
>�� �� �� �� ��"('a000' asWideString sameAs: (ByteArray with: 97 with: 0 with: 0 with: 0) asString) >>> false"
>
>�� �� �� �� ��(string1 isByteString and: [string2 isByteString]) ifTrue: [
>�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��^ ByteString compare: string1 with: string2 collated: order].
>�� �� �� "Primitive does not fail properly right now"
>�� �� �� �� ��^ String compare: string1 with: string2 collated: order
>
>
> ByteString>>compare: string1 with: string2 collated: order
>�� �� �� �� ��"Return 1, 2 or 3, if string1 is <, =, or > string2, with the collating order of characters given by the order array."
>
>�� �� �� �� ��| len1 len2 c1 c2 |
>�� �� �� �� ��<primitive: 'primitiveCompareString' module: 'MiscPrimitivePlugin'>
>
>�� �� �� �� ��<var: #string1 declareC: 'unsigned char *string1'>
>�� �� �� �� ��<var: #string2 declareC: 'unsigned char *string2'>
>�� �� �� �� ��<var: #order declareC: 'unsigned char *order'>
>
>�� �� �� �� ��len1 := string1 size.
>�� �� �� �� ��len2 := string2 size.
>�� �� �� �� ��1 to: (len1 min: len2) do:
>�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��[:i |
>�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��c1 := order at: (string1 basicAt: i) + 1.
>�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��c2 := order at: (string2 basicAt: i) + 1.
>�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��c1 = c2 ifFalse:
>�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ��[c1 < c2 ifTrue: [^ 1] ifFalse: [^ 3]]].
>�� �� �� �� ��len1 = len2 ifTrue: [^ 2].
>�� �� �� �� ��len1 < len2 ifTrue: [^ 1] ifFalse: [^ 3].
>
>
>
>