From: Gavri Savio Fernandez <Gavri_F@...>
Date: 2004-06-03T06:02:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Value type or reference type

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Austin Ziegler [mailto:Austin.Ziegler@evault.com]
> Subject: Re: Value type or reference type
> > Fixnum is value type, but whatever you pass into addOne() is
> > passed by value, which means that a copy of  the value is made.
> 
> This is not so: everything [except immediate values] in Ruby is
> passed by reference, not by value. Immediate values are immutable in
> any case, so it is as if they were passed by reference in any case.
> There is no meaningful distinction between a "reference type" and a
> "value type" from the Ruby programmer's perspective.
> 
> The trick is that variables aren't *bound* to objects the way that
> they are in languages like C++ and Java; they merely refer to a
> given object reference at a given time.

wow! seems i completely misunderstood the concepts!! maybe i should just stop looking at all languages with java-colored classes :(


gavri