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comp.lang.ruby

What's up with symbols?

Hans-Eric Grönlund

4/3/2006 1:06:00 PM

Hello fellows!

I'm trying to understand symbols. Not what they are, but rather why Ruby
has them. They are neat and I use them, but effectively you end up with
the same thing using plain strings, right? So why extend the language? I
get the feeling I'm missing a big point so please help me out by
pointing it out to me.

Best regards

Hans-Eric Grönlund

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....
2 Answers

Daniel Harple

4/3/2006 2:19:00 PM

0

On Apr 3, 2006, at 3:06 PM, Hans-Eric Grönlund wrote:

> I'm trying to understand symbols. Not what they are, but rather why
> Ruby
> has them. They are neat and I use them, but effectively you end up
> with
> the same thing using plain strings, right? So why extend the
> language? I
> get the feeling I'm missing a big point so please help me out by
> pointing it out to me.

Hi,

See:

* [Symbols Are Not Immutable Strings][1]
* [Many previous discussions on the list][2]

[1]: http://onestepback.org/index.cgi/+...
SymbolsAreNotImmutableStrings.red
[2]: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ru...
group=comp.lang.ruby&q=symbols&qt_g=1&searchnow=Search+this+group

-- Daniel

james_b

4/3/2006 2:22:00 PM

0

Hans-Eric Grönlund wrote:
> Hello fellows!
>
> I'm trying to understand symbols. Not what they are, but rather why Ruby
> has them. They are neat and I use them, but effectively you end up with
> the same thing using plain strings, right?

No. There was a lengthy thread about Symbols here on ruby-talk not too
long ago, so perhaps you'll want to search the archives.


> So why extend the language? I
> get the feeling I'm missing a big point so please help me out by
> pointing it out to me.

See also

http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2005/12/symbols_strings_methods_a...
http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2005/12/digging_into_ruby_symb...



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James Britt

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