From: thomas.macklin@...
Date: 2007-08-15T05:05:00+09:00
Subject: Re: change of Symbol to respond to intern?

On Aug 14, 11:26 am, thomas.mack...@gmail.com wrote:
> 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?

I knew about overloading Symbol, but I think we can all agree that's
not really a practical solution for use in a bigger system.  I didn't
know about to_sym though, and I think that's perfect!  Shows what I
get for thinking that I knew the core API pretty well...

Thanks... --Tom