From: Daniel Harple <dharple@...>
Date: 2006-04-03T23:18:38+09:00
Subject: Re: What's up with symbols?

On Apr 3, 2006, at 3:06 PM, Hans-Eric Gr�nlund wrote:

> I'm trying to understand symbols. Not what they are, but rather why  
> Ruby
> has them. They are neat and I use them, but effectively you end up  
> with
> the same thing using plain strings, right? So why extend the  
> language? I
> get the feeling I'm missing a big point so please help me out by
> pointing it out to me.

Hi,

See:

* [Symbols Are Not Immutable Strings][1]
* [Many previous discussions on the list][2]

[1]: http://onestepback.org/index.cgi/+Tech/Ruby/ 
SymbolsAreNotImmutableStrings.red
[2]: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/search? 
group=comp.lang.ruby&q=symbols&qt_g=1&searchnow=Search+this+group

-- Daniel