From: thomas.macklin@...
Date: 2007-08-15T00:29:58+09:00
Subject: change of Symbol to respond to intern?

I often find myself writing methods with the following form:

def foo(sym_or_str)
  @iv = sym_or_str
end

when I go to compare later vs @iv, I can do:

def compare_vs_iv(arg)
  if arg.to_s == @iv.to_s then
    ...
  end
  ...
end

but I can't do:

if arg.intern == @iv.intern then
  ...
end

This is because symbols don't respond to intern.  Is there any good
reason Symbol doesn't respond to intern, while String responds to
to_s, Array responds, to to_a, etc.?  If not, I would like to propose
that the intern method be added to Symbol at some point.

Thoughts?