'Equals' in any-typed code: VERY BIG PROPOSAL

[Simon Ochsenreither]

> No, but I am going to propose an 'eq' operator. Into the Java language. As
> such:
>
>      if (node.getKey() eq key) {
>      if (name eq "") {
>      if (product.getColor() eq color) {
>
> As well as solving equals for 'any', such an operator would address one of
> the biggest pain points for millions of application developers working in
> Java.
a) What are the actual semantics?
b) How is this different to the approaches already outlines earlier?