From: David Vallner <david@...>
Date: 2006-11-03T07:41:12+09:00
Subject: Re: str1 = str2 is not a copy?!?

--------------enig9EE945A6973ADD854A747717
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Paul Lutus wrote:
> Joe Ruby MUDCRAP-CE wrote:
>> WHY is var line getting changed by operations on var base_name?
>=20
> Because in most cases, variable names contain references for the sake o=
f
> efficiency.

And I'm guessing the sake of simplicity too. The Ruby basic data item
object is thus one-dimensional, objects hold data, and variables point
to objects. Contrasting with C, where either variables hold data, or
heap memory holds data, and variables point to heap memory, or (ye gods)
C++, where references add yet another dimension to the variable / data
relationship (and that you can override the behaviour to do something
else when a data item changes the way it's being referenced
arbitrarily), this is -much- simpler to understand (when learning as a
first system, not if used to a PHPesque ad-hoc mixture of behaviours),
and what's more important, it's easier to keep a single set of quirks to
watch out for when using other peoples' code, or designing reusable code
(e.g. to avoid clobbering a library's internal state, etc.); although it
-is- a net loss of language expressivity. Indeed, AFAIK, even the
predominant C++ practice is "pick pointers or references and stick with
them throughout your code" for the common case.

David Vallner


--------------enig9EE945A6973ADD854A747717
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc"
Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc"

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFFSnQCy6MhrS8astoRAor5AJ97WkR/nzHVZyWVupeNu65fLKKZYwCfRqun
Mg/Z9R2MrfpZyA9EYJweZ1k=
=rBF0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--------------enig9EE945A6973ADD854A747717--