From: Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@...>
Date: 2007-01-28T02:40:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Implementation of Symbols...

On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 02:20:39AM +0900, Michael Cowden wrote:
> Ok, I'm sure this one has been addressed ump-teen times, but everything I read,
> at least on the rails side, puts symbols in the 'magic' space where you don't need
> to know how they're implemented--or what they are for that matter--you just need
> to know how to use them.
> 
> Anyway, I've done a bit of programming in C so understanding it in those terms isn't
> going to hurt too much... can anyone explain?
> 
> So far, the most elegant explanation comes from a discussion on LISP:
> 
> "Symbol type: Symbols are effectively pointers to strings stored in a hash table. So you can test equality by comparing a pointer, instead of comparing each character."
> 
Yeah, pretty much. If you really want to see, you can check out some of
the code in parse.c in and around the function rb_intern.
> from: http://www.paulgraham.com/icad.html
> 
> Is this relevant?
> 
> -Michael Cowden
>  StoryRight.com
>  michael.cowden@storyright.com
>  (443) 519-8662