[rules-users] Scope of bindings, identical patterns

[Julian Morrison]

Suppose I have a rule like:

rule "foo"
    when
       $a : Cheese(name="Stilton")
       $b : Cheese(name="Stilton")
    then
       # etc
end

First question: is it possible that a == b ? In other words, can both
patterns end up matching the same object in one activation? I have been
assuming this is so, but it isn't covered in the docs so far as I can see.

Second question: why can't I add as a pattern, $a != $b ? The eclipse
IDE compiler complains they are undefined. What is the scope of the
bindings defined by $a and $b ?

-- 
Julian Morrison
Programmer
i-neda Ltd.