From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2006-07-15T21:10:55+09:00
Subject: Re: storing and using references to variables

On 7/8/06, bbiker <renard@nc.rr.com> wrote:
> In Ruby, all variables (except for number objects) are references and
> there is no need to implicitly derefence.

Actually, this isn't *quite* true. I'm on vacation right now, but
*all* variables hold references to objects. It just happens that some
*objects* are immediate and immutable. Thinking of numbers as
"differently held" will lead you down the wrong way. What makes them
different is not that variables "hold" them differently, but they have
immediate/immutable values. You can make other objects that act very
similarly in pure Ruby. (Just #freeze the object.)

-austin
-- 
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