[ruby-core:47264] [ruby-trunk - Feature #4801] Shorthand Hash Syntax for Strings

Issue #4801 has been updated by alexch (Alex Chaffee).


Symbols *should* be frozen strings. Any performance problems can be solved by the interpreter. The reason the feature was "abolished" (rolled back) had to do with existing libraries, especially those using "case" statements to compare classes. 

But the case statement gotcha can be solved by always putting "when Symbol" above "when String". This is no worse than some other workarounds for otherwise useful language features, such as "always use self when calling a setter on the current instance".

See more discussion (including a link to Matz' 2006 comments) at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11085564/why-are-symbols-not-frozen-strings

If "class Symbol < String" then a HUGE source of confusion and errors will be removed from the language, without sacrificing any of the semantic power of symbols.

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Feature #4801: Shorthand Hash Syntax for Strings
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/4801#change-28960

Author: wardrop (Tom Wardrop)
Status: Assigned
Priority: Normal
Assignee: nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)
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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