From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-07-29T05:49:47+09:00
Subject: Re: does ":" have an anolog in another language?

Hi --

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006, Matt Todd wrote:

> In my example, using a symbol would be the same as creating a symbol
> object (whose initialize() method was overwritten to pull a
> Unique-Singleton deal):
>
> { :foo => "bar" }
>
> is the same as
>
> { Symbol.new('foo') => "bar" }
>
> (That is, if Symbol had #new defined).
>
> It's like saying...
>
> "Hello"
>
> does the same thing as
>
> String.new('hello')
>
> except that it doesn't create a new object for duplicate values, it
> simply returns the reference to the previous Symbol object created.

Sorry, I'm not following.  What purpose would the hypothetical
Symbol.new serve?


David

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