From: Robert Dober <robert.dober@...>
Date: 2007-05-15T23:34:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Why was the "Symbol is a String"-idea dropped?

On 5/15/07, Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 15.05.2007 15:54, Robert Dober wrote:
> > On 5/15/07, Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com> wrote:
> > <snip>
> >> But then what you want are not symbols, but true immutable strings. By
> >> that
> >> I mean: some object where I can write 10MB of binary dump. If I want
> >> to add
> >> one character to the end of it, then I create another object containing
> >> 10MB+1byte of binary dump, and the old 10MB object is garbage-collected.
> > But of course we have immutable strings already :)))
> >
> > class IString < String
> >   def initialize str
> >     super(str)
> >     freeze
> >   end
> > end
>
> What advantages does this have over using "freeze" directly?

Dunno :)

x = IString.new("Hello World") # Not even tested yet
vs.
x="HelloWorld".freeze

Well the first one has the advantage that I thought about it ;)

Now I reckon that the subclass stuff is baaad

def blah str
    raise ArgumentError unless IString === str
    ...
end

but now someone does
class MString < IString
   get rid of the freeze (by calling superclass.superclass.new in
self.class.new e.g)
end

and my code is broken, while in


def blah str
    raise ArgumentError unless str.respond_to? :frozen && str.frozen?
   ...
end

frozen is frozen forever.

So do what Robert told you and beware of what Robert told you;)

>
> str = "foo".freeze
>
> It seems using a new class will increase the likelihood of things to break.
>
> > HTIOI (Hope this is of interest ;)
>
> LOL
>
> > You see things; and you say Why?
> > But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?
> > -- George Bernard Shaw
>
> Greetings to George, btw. :-)
Well last time I met him he was admiring your posts to the list :-P
>
>         robert
>
>
idem