This is a doubt I had myself when first checking out Ruby, but it was quickly allayed by this article:

http://glu.ttono.us/articles/200...ng-ruby- symbols
Jordan | Homepage | 11.23.05 - 4:42 pm | #

I use Ruby symbols in some Ruby code I'm writing at work. I suspect that in most applications, the performance (memory use) issues mentioned in Kevin Clark's entry are relatively unimportant. To me, it is a conceptual thing: with strings, there's always the nagging little extra mental complexity that a string is made up of little pieces. In contrast, a Symbol is a unit. It just seems conceptually simpler. I think that this is what motivates Jim Weirich's comment about using a String only when the characters inside it are what's important.
Doug L. | Homepage | 11.28.05 - 4:26 pm | #