From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2003-02-04T07:56:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Designing API strings vs symbols?


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Tom Sawyer (transami@transami.net) wrote:

> On Monday 03 February 2003 03:35 pm, Travis Whitton wrote:
> > Would most people prefer profile to exclusively use symbols, or should =
it
> > use the mix of symbols and strings as defined above? I.e.,
>=20
> i have considered this myself and i think the best answer is to support w=
hat=20
> the application demands. in other words. if spaces and such are illegal f=
or=20
> your apps use, then use Symbol, if not then use String. if you mix then y=
ou=20
> have potential for errors.

'foo bar baz'.intern # =3D> :foo bar baz

> of course if you internally support string, symbols are a subset of strin=
gs.=20
> so you could do #to_s on everything that comes in and effectively take th=
em=20
> into account, but do not go the other way if there is any potential=20
> uncertainty.

=46rom a black-box perspective, a Symbol cannot contain \0, but everything
else seems cool.

irb(main):001:0> File.open('/kernel') { |fp| puts fp.read.intern.class }
ArgumentError: string contains `\0'
        from (irb):1:in `intern'
        from (irb):1
        from (irb):1:in `open'
        from (irb):1
irb(main):002:0> File.open('/kernel') { |fp| puts fp.read.gsub("\0", '').in=
tern.class }
Symbol
=3D> nil

--=20
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://segment7.net
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