From: Michael Neumann <mneumann@...>
Date: 2008-05-09T01:06:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Comparing String with Symbol

Roger Pack wrote:
>> I'd rather use to_sym instead of to_s.
>>
>>               matz.
> 
> I'd use either one except that [quoting Tim Harper]
> 
> once a symbol is allocated, it is never garbage collected.
> 
> This opens up a potential DOS attack: if you convert any user input to 
> symbols (via #to_sym or #intern), they could easily fill your symbol 
> space up and eat all of the available system memory.
> 
> We'd all be wiser than I was a few minutes ago to keep this present when 
> deciding whether to use symbols or strings:
> 
> http://blog.hasmanythrough.com/2008/4/19/symbols-are-not-pretty-strings
> --
> 
> or, in other words
> loop { rand(10000000).to_sym }
>  # uses up memory in a hurry :)

This one isn't better, despite being shorter ;-)

   a = []; loop { a << 1 }

Or in general, "loop { }" is not a very good idea...

Couldn't resist ;-)

Regards,

   Michael