From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2010-01-19T01:22:46+09:00
Subject: Re: basic question: passing a modifiable argument to a routine

2010/1/18 lalawawa <usenet@ccjj.info>
>
> When you say that += creates a different object, then are you saying
> that when I do
>
> a = 0
> while a < 1000000
>  a += 1
> end
>
> it creates a million different objects and garbage collects most of
> them?  Isn't that horribly inefficient for just doing integer
> arithmetic?

Apart from what Rick already said - the funny thing is: the fact that
Ruby works this way (i.e. has a uniform object model as opposed to
Java which does have non object types) makes a lot of things easier.

And with the optimization Rick mentioned it even isn't too inefficient
- something that Java programmer haunts when they use object types
like java.lang.Integer and friends.  I remember an article which
elaborated on that design flaw of Java but I can't seem to find it
right now.  Maybe Charly has a link handy.

Kind regards

robert

--
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/