From: Christopher Coleman-Smith <chris.colemansmith@...>
Date: 2006-12-14T05:09:36+09:00
Subject: Pointers and References?

Simple question, i come from a C/++ background and i'm just really 
starting to get "real things done with ruby" ( that should be a book 
title). Anyway as i start writing methods that return objects and 
variables and take objects and variables i've started to wonder how they 
actually get passed around. I haven't found a specific pointer or 
reference type construction, although since everything i've tried to do 
has worked i've not tried very hard.

I'm guessing that everything gets passed around by reference? Is that 
true? Also what about situations where you'd really want to use a 
pointer, like referring to huge things or ,god forbid, doing grimy 
things with arrays. It is very nice having all these things automated, 
like the garbage collection etc, but i still find myself wanting to free 
things. I've only just gotten over wanting to semi-colon every statement.

Probably by asking this i'm showing how i really haven't groked ruby at 
all. I'm happy to admit that.

Thanks