From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2007-09-29T16:11:00+09:00
Subject: Re: a different type of reference (shocked)

Hi --

On Sat, 29 Sep 2007, Phlip wrote:

> SpringFlowers AutumnMoon wrote:
>
>> (and in Ruby, we call a method by "pass by value, the value being the
>> reference (pointer) to an object).  and when the method returns
>> something, it returns a value, which is the reference to an object.)  It
>> is very consistent all the way.  In Ruby, we don't have the "alias
>> reference", right?
>
> In Ruby, types that can (generally) fit into 32 bits are "immediate
> types". These Fixnums and Floats are pass-by-value. All other types -
> from String up - are pass by reference:

I'd describe it more as SpringFlowers did: pass by value, where the
value happens to be a reference. When you do this:

   s = "string"
   do_something(s)

you are passing s by its value, which is a reference to the string
object.


David

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