From: Caleb Tennis <caleb@...>
Date: 2005-12-31T05:50:07+09:00
Subject: Re: What is the difference between :foo and "foo" ?

> I have no idea of the internal representation, but I do know when I use
> to_s on a symbol I get a string, and when I use to_i on that same symbol I
> get an integer, so in a generic, non-ruby-dependent way, it has an integer
> and a string. If it didn't "have" or "possess" or "be cognisant of" both
> the integer and the string, I wouldn't be able to deduce the string and
> integer with to_s and to_i.

I think the nomenclature of "has" isn't valid because the symbol doesn't 
contain those things.  Much like

a = "53"
a.to_i  

=> 53

"a" doesn't contain an integer.  It does, however, contain a method that 
allows you to convert it to an integer representation.