From: hipster <hipster@...4all.nl>
Date: 2001-10-24T18:18:44+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23166] Re: Variants (theoretical question)

On Wed, 24 Oct 2001  05:54:25 +0900, Hal E. Fulton wrote:
> I may be offbase here...
> 
> I know very little about VB and Delphi (though
> I like what I've seen of Delphi very much).
> 
> The entity which these programmers call a
> "variant" seems to be just a typeless variable
> (referencing typed data).
> 
> Is this more or less the same as Ruby's concept
> of an ordinary variable?

this quote from (thx 2 google)
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/nextgen/technology/vbupgrade.asp
seems to support your conjecture:

    * Variant to Object Conversion. Previous versions of Visual Basic
supported the Variant datatype, which is no longer supported in Visual
Basic .NET. All variables declared as Variant are converted to
variables of type Object.

Presuming that a .net Object is analogous to Ruby's Object, of course.


Michel