Yes. Only normalized integers will compare correctly. This is an
optimization which you usuall don't see as it allows to be extremely
fast if we (for example) compare whether "100 factorial = 99
factorial" (equality essentially degenerates to string equality).
>
> For example:
>
> (5883377743366005002288555544466433777 \\\ 2) =
> (5883377743366005002288555544466433777 \\ 2)
>
> results in false, although both expression answer 1, but the first
> expression answers a large postive int(1) and the last a int(1).
This will answer true:
(5883377743366005002288555544466433777 \\\ 2) normalize =
(5883377743366005002288555544466433777 \\ 2)
The point being that \\\ deliberately answers a non-normalized result.
Cheers,
  - Andreas