From: zverok.offline@...
Date: 2018-01-08T14:47:10+00:00
Subject: [ruby-core:84716] [Ruby trunk Bug#14336] Create new method String#symbol? and deprecate Symbol class

Issue #14336 has been updated by zverok (Victor Shepelev).


To be completely honest, I feel like you are solving the problem that exists for very small percent of Rubyists (I am not saying "non-existent problem" only out of politeness).

When people answer you with "removing of `Symbol` will lead to this, that, and that problems", they just give you examples of how `Symbol`s nature deep into Ruby, and why it will never be removed, not ask you to "solve those three problems and we are done".

There is absolutely nothing with `Symbol`/`String` difference that needs "fixing", and it is this way for the most of us. `Symbol` is an internal name, `String` is user input, it is neat and useful semantical difference, not "ambiguity" or "bad design".

And let it just be this way.

----------------------------------------
Bug #14336: Create new method String#symbol? and deprecate Symbol class
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14336#change-69436

* Author: dsferreira (Daniel Ferreira)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
* Target version: 
* ruby -v: 
* Backport: 2.3: UNKNOWN, 2.4: UNKNOWN, 2.5: UNKNOWN
----------------------------------------
From  the discussions on the three previous issues related to the String vs Symbol subject ([5964](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/5964), [7792](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7792), [14277](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/14277)) there are some conclusions we can assume:
* Current String vs Symbol is not the ideal scenario. See: Matz and Koichi comments.
* Current philosophy is to use Symbols as identifiers and Strings when strings are needed.
* Current situation is that Symbols are being used in many code bases as strings except for strings that really need the String methods.
* Current situation is that we are designing APIs to handle both String and Symbol inputs forcing an overhead of API development.

I propose the deprecation of `Symbol` class and the introduction of `String#symbol?`.

```ruby
foo = :foo
foo.class # => String
foo.symbol? # => true
bar = "bar"
bar.class # => String
bar.symbol? # => false
```

For backwards compatibility transition path I propose:

```ruby
class Symbol
  def self.===(var)
    warn ("Warning message regarding deprecated class")
    if var.class == Symbol
      true
    elsif var.class == String && var.symbol?
      true
    else
      false
    end
  end
end

class String
  def is_a?(klass)
    case klass
    when String
      true
    when Symbol
      self.symbol?
    else
      false
    end
  end
end
```



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