From: Bill Kelly <billk@...>
Date: 2002-12-01T08:57:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Scalars

Hi,

From: "Daniel Carrera" <dcarrera@math.umd.edu>
>
> > Apart from syntax, there's nothing special about Array or Hash objects in
> > Ruby, so there's no special word for them.
> 
> Yes there is.  You just called them "array" and "hash".  How do you call
> something that is neither?

Point is, I think, that they're all objects.  And, with respect to
variables referring to any given object, there's no difference from
the variable's point of view.

 x = 1
 x = Hash.new
 x = Array.new
 x = {}
 x = []
 x = FubarSpecialHash.new
 x = AlmostAnArrayButMaybeAStackOrQueueAlso.new

How is a Hash different from a FubarSpecialHash?  Well from the
variable's 'perspective' it isn't...

irb> x = 1
1
irb> class Fixnum; def [](idx); self + idx; end; end
nil
irb> x[3]
4

... Now Fixnums have some bizarre "array-like" indexing behavior. ;-D
What do you call them now?

The variable 'x' still refers to the same object we initialized
it with...


Hope this helps  (?)


Regards,

Bill