From: Daniel Amelang <daniel.amelang@...>
Date: 2005-07-26T09:25:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Trying to understand symbols

> In this case, :foo is not just a string-like thing.
> It seems more like the one in the quoted text.

In this case, ruby is using an instance of the Symbol class as the
search criterion for finding the method. The 'symbol' in the sense of
the compiler token never comes into play, because the compiler isn't
involved at run time (barring an 'eval' call). The compiler 'symbols'
have already been translated into their ruby internal representations
(ok, I used broad strokes here, bear with me). Send() just uses the
:foo symbol to search the ruby internals for a method with the name
'foo'. BTW, you could have used 'foo' instead of :foo.

Dan