From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-03-15T10:10:10+09:00
Subject: Re: yaml and ruby symbols

why the lucky stiff wrote:
> 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.

That's great. Thanks!

How will we switch between emitting "!ruby/sym foo" and ":foo"? Will it 
be an option to to_yaml?