[ruby-core:39001] [Ruby 1.9 - Feature #4801] Shorthand Hash Syntax for Strings

Issue #4801 has been updated by Tom Wardrop.


@Nobuyoshi Nakada, it does seem that my original suggestion for the Hash syntax cannot be implemented due to the String/Symbol incompatibilities, thus how this discussion has panned out is quite natural, though I think it would be better if this discussion continue in another thread.

Does anyone think it's worth opening up such a discussion on whether Strings and Symbols should be more compatible? If the idea of Symbol inheriting from String has been discussed before, that's ok, because that's something implementation specific, where as what I'm talking about is more of a general interoperability concept for working with Strings and Symbols.
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Feature #4801: Shorthand Hash Syntax for Strings
http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/4801

Author: Tom Wardrop
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee: 
Category: 
Target version: 


Assuming there's no technical limitation or ambiguities, I suggest that the shorthand syntax for symbol's in the context of an array, be applied to strings also.

E.g. {'key': 'value'}

I don't believe there are any syntax ambiguous that this would give rise to. The only consideration that may need to be made, is if there are plans to support shorthand syntax for quoted symbols, e.g. {'key': 'value'}. If quoted symbols are off the table, then there's no harm in implementing a shorthand hash syntax for strings. This may stem the growing problem of what I like to call 'symbolitis' , where symbol's are selected as the key type purely for their aesthetics and ease of use, even when strings are a more appropriate choice.

Thoughts?


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