From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01@...>
Date: 2009-12-22T15:59:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Symbols vs. constants?


On Dec 22, 2009, at 12:59 AM, Walton Hoops wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: James Edward Gray II [mailto:james@graysoftinc.com]
>> 
>> I'm not sure we should go quite THAT far.  It is used in the wild for
>> features people do like.
>> 
>> There are also ways to do it without a warning.
> 
> Really? For what purpose?  I can't think of any instance that you'd
> need to change a constant where a variable wouldn't suffice (but of
> course that doesn't mean it doesn't exist).

I think Rails uses it to reload class definitions.  That is to say that a particular constant, such as ArticleController, will refer to different class objects as the class definition changes.

Gary Wright