From: Phrogz <gavin@...>
Date: 2007-01-27T09:20:06+09:00
Subject: Re: pass by reference?

On Jan 26, 4:32 pm, Vincent Fourmond <vincent.fourm...@9online.fr>
wrote:
> You don't actually need to do anything: everything in ruby is passed
> by reference, (excepted integers, symbols, nil, false and true - am I
> missing one ?)

How do you know if those are passed by reference or by value? It's a
very existential question:
If you pass an immutable type by reference, does it make a sound?
Er, I mean...
If you passed an immutable type by reference, how would you know that
it wasn't passed by value?

I leave you with this:

irb(main):001:0> values = [ 1, :foo, true, false, nil ]
=> [1, :foo, true, false, nil]

irb(main):002:0> puts values.map{ |v| v.object_id }
3
231138
2
0
4
=> nil

irb(main):003:0> def foo( *args ); puts args.map{ |v| v.object_id };
end
=> nil

irb(main):004:0> foo( *values )
3
231138
2
0
4
=> nil

irb(main):005:0> b = :foo
=> :foo

irb(main):006:0> b.object_id
=> 231138

It's almost the reverse of what you said - it's not that immediate
values are passed by value, but rather that every reference to an
immediate value refers to the same object.