From: SpringFlowers AutumnMoon <summercoolness@...>
Date: 2007-10-01T15:03:18+09:00
Subject: Re: a = Dog.new # a is not a pointer and not a reference?

Charles Oliver Nutter wrote:

> Ruby variables hold the value of an object reference. If you re-assign
> them, you are setting them to a different object reference. If you
> retrieve them, you're getting an object reference which you can then
> pass by value or use to invoke methods.

yes, that's what i mean by thinking of a reference to an object as a 
pointer.  let's say if we implement Ruby, can't we actually set it as a 
pointer to the Dog object, and then whenever we use d.bark(), it will go 
to where it points to and start looking for a table of method names. 
and if not found, go to the parents, again using a pointer to the parent 
class.  i won't increment the pointer or do pointer arithmetic, and i 
won't care what the pointer's value is (the address) and won't tell the 
programmer, but underneath, it is still a pointer.

so

d = Dog.new("lulu")       # d points to some new memory chunk
b = d                     # b points to the same place
d = Dog.new("woofy")      # d now points to a new memory chunk
                          # and b points to the old chunk


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