From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2001-09-19T00:10:58+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:21330] Re: const-correctness

Paul Brannan <pbrannan@atdesk.com> writes:

> If I do this:
> 
>   X = 'this is a test'         # this is a const reference to an object
>   x = X                        # this is a non-const reference to the same
>   x << '... testing ...'       # let's try and modify a "const" object
>   p x
>   p X

All you have to do is

   X = 'test'
   X << '...'

There's no warning there either.

In Ruby, constant is an attribute of the name, not the object. 'X' is
constant, so if you reassign to it, you get a warning. However, the
object the constant references is still capable of receiving messages
and changing its contents accordingly.

Dave