From: Glenn Smith <glenn.ruby@...>
Date: 2005-04-11T19:56:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Symbols...

Every day I scratch a little bit more off the surface of Ruby!

Thanks guys!!


On Apr 10, 2005 9:05 PM, Nicholas Seckar <nseckar@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday 10 April 2005 15:16, Bill Kelly wrote:
> > Probably (just a guess) the @params behind the scenes is a
> > hash that has keys of Strings not Symbols.  If this is so, then
> > in the above, :year is being converted, probably, with .to_s
> > before being used as a lookup in @params hash anyway.
> 
> You are exactly correct. (The class is called HashWithIndifferentAccess..)
> 
> The main reason for using strings as keys for indifferent hashes is the fact
> that symbols are not garbage collected. If symbols were used, then
> constructing indifferent hashes with arbitrary keys would (eventually)
> produce the symptoms of a memory leak.
> 
> --
> 
> Nicholas Seckar aka. Ulysses
> 
> 


-- 

All the best
Glenn
Aylesbury, UK