From: Keith Gaughan <kmgaughan@...>
Date: 2006-07-29T10:59:30+09:00
Subject: Re: does ":" have an anolog in another language?

On Sat, Jul 29, 2006 at 10:15:09AM +0900, Ike wrote:

> Doesn;t that therefore make it the same thing as a reference in c++ ? 

No, because unlike a reference, a symbol doesn't actually refer to
anything. A symbol has no meaning other than that which you give it in
your head. A symbol is _just_ like a string except that (a) there's only
one instance of each, i.e., :foo is always the same symbol whereever it
is in the program whereas "foo" is different; and (b) they're immutable:
you can't ever change a symbol.

K.

-- 
Keith Gaughan - kmgaughan@eircom.net - http://talideon.com/
So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far
as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical
way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist.
		-- T. S. Eliot, essay on Baudelaire