From: why the lucky stiff <ruby-talk@...>
Date: 2004-03-15T10:05:11+09:00
Subject: Re: yaml and ruby symbols

Joel VanderWerf wrote:
> 
> foo = YAML.load(foo_yaml)
> p foo
> # ==>
> # :foo
> #
> # Still good.
> 

the above works because loading of colon-prefixed strings as Symbols was 
added to Syck about two months ago.  so the only part of your 
proposition that needs to be completed is the emission of symbols 
implicitly.

i don't see any reason we can't move forward with it.  you mention 
portability...

no, python will not load symbols the same way.  nor will php or java or 
c.  but this is true of many yaml constructs.  the map, for instance, 
will be loaded in php as an ordered hash.  we can't solve that problem.

i would recommend section 3.3 ('Completeness') of the yaml spec to 
anyone who wants to know how portability between languages works with 
yaml.  basically, as long as the documents round-trip properly, the 
native representation isn't (and can't be) perfect.

yeah, so the patch is checked into syck cvs.  weaving into ruby cvs later.

_why