From: Robert Dober <robert.dober@...>
Date: 2007-05-19T14:49:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Why was the "Symbol is a String"-idea dropped?

On 5/18/07, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/18/07, Robert Dober <robert.dober@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 5/18/07, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 5/18/07, Paul Brannan <pbrannan@atdesk.com> wrote:
> > > > On Fri, May 18, 2007 at 03:17:01AM +0900, dblack@wobblini.net wrote:
> > > > > Yes, it's the immutable/immediate thing that symbols have in common
> > > > > with fixnums and that neither has in common with strings.
> > > >
> > > > Frozen strings are immutable.
> > >
> > > But not immediate.
> > >
> >
> > What about
> >
> > %f{This is sooo cooooold} << "!"
> >
> > TypeError: can't modify frozen string
> > Just an idea.
>
> That's the immutable part, but
>
> a = "abc".freeze
> b = "abc".freeze
> c = :abc
> d = :abc
> a.object_id => -606341628
> b.object_id => -606347008
> c.object_id => 343218
> d.object_id => 343218
>
> The key difference is that there's only one instance of a symbol with
> a given string representation.
Ah I see, I got confused, I did not understand the meaning of
immediate immediately ;).
Although theoretically the interpreter could create an immediate value for
%f{...} we would probably run out of address space :(
<snip>
>
Cheers
Robert

-- 
You see things; and you say Why?
But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?
-- George Bernard Shaw