From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2003-12-14T15:49:07+09:00
Subject: Re: inplace assignment

T. Onoma wrote:
> 
> Sure,
> 
>   q = 1
>   p q.__id__  # => 3
>   q = 2
>   p q.__id__  # => 5  (want this to still be 3)
> 
> In other words I want to change what q "contains" rather then alter its 
> reference. With an array for example you can do that with #replace. In 
> particular I'm interesed in doing this with constants.
> 

OK, I thought that was what you meant.

String also has a replace. But there's no general Object#replace.

My impression is that this in impossible in general, and for
immediate values such as Fixnums, "even more impossible."

The idea of doing this with a constant is scary to me. It's bad
enough that a constant String or Array can be changed. And it's
even scarier to think of doing that with something like a
Fixnum.

What's the situation where you'd want to do this?

Hal