Should vec_equal() compare names?

[lionel-]

This would make it different from c(a = 1) == c(b = 1). This might reflect a design difference between vctrs and base R.

• In base R, == compares [[ slices of atomic vectors, hence the names are excluded from the comparison.

• In vctrs, atomic types do not have exposed atoms. Only recursive types allow extraction of data. vec_equal() operates on data proxys and hence is not affected by attributes in general. But vector names are special vector data with ad hoc support.

See also #141 (comment).

More importantly, what are the practical implications of comparing names in vec_equal()?

[lionel-]

Probably shouldn't. Names are used as metadata in many code patterns. If they are relevant, they could be converted to a tibble column so they are treated as actual data.