From: Paul Lutus <nospam@...>
Date: 2006-11-30T08:00:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Need a range, but not getting it. . . .

ara.t.howard@noaa.gov wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Nov 2006, Paul Lutus wrote:
> 
>>
>> Because the original example used a string, and yours uses an array, it
>> is not a valid counterexample.
>>
>> Applying ".to_s" to a string has no effect, consequently the receiver is
>> changed. Applying ".to_s" to anything other than a string makes a copy.
> 
> i wounn't quite say that.  mmap, for example, simply does some pointer
> tricks
> to return a string.  many classes do such things.  one should assume only
> that to_s returns a string representation of the object, whether or not
> it's a copy is class dependant.

Okay, I agree, but I limited my remark to a string object getting ".to_s"
applied to it, while really, always, has no effect, and returns the
original object. And I see I should have said, "applying '.to_s' to
anything other than a string usually makes a copy."

-- 
Paul Lutus
http://www.arachnoid.com