From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2002-11-27T14:00:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Things That Newcomers to Ruby Should Know (11/24/02)

William Djaja Tjokroaminata <billtj@z.glue.umd.edu> writes:

> Dave Thomas <Dave@pragmaticprogrammer.com> wrote:
> 
> > However, Matz clearly believed that although Strings could be mutable,
> > having integers whose value changes out from beneath you was a BAD
> > IDEA. So, he made Fixnums immutable. Having done that, he was then
> > free to make them value objects.
> 
> > So, Fixnums (and the rest) are immutable first, value objects
> > second. The reason they're immutable is not an implementation
> > decision, but a language design issue.
> 
> Hi Dave,
> 
> Thanks a lot for the comprehensive explanation.  How about Bignums
> then? :)   (efficiency vs. consistency vs. implementation vs. ...)

Same goes for Bignums (they also are not mutable). I'm not sure what
you're getting at.


Dave