Re: aliasing variables

I mean, can't I just tell ruby that b refers to a, instead of
referring to a's value?

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:04:20 -0800, Eliah Hecht <eliahhecht <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> I know why it doesn't work, I just want to know how to make it work
> (if it's doable without making a wrapper object).
> 
> 
> On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 08:57:41 +0900, Hal Fulton <hal9000 <at> hypermetrics.com> wrote:
> > Eliah Hecht wrote:
> > > Is there a way to do something like
> > > a = 1
> > > alias(b,a)
> > > a += 1
> > > where the desired effect is that now b == 2?
> > >
> >
> > It's impossible in the general case, because
> > a+=1 literally means a=a+1 (in other words,
> > it creates a new object and assigns that to
> > a).
> >
> > Fixnums are not mutable at all. But if an
> > object is mutable, and an operator modifies
> > the object rather than creating a new one,
> > the behavior you want will happen:
> >
> >     a = "cat"
> >     b = a
> >     a << "hode"
> >     puts b        # cathode
> >
> > However, assignment never keeps the same
> > object:
> >
> >     a = "cat"
> >     b = a
> >     a += "hode"
> >     puts b        # cat
> >
> > In short: Assignment works on variables, not
> > objects; but methods are called on objects,
> > not variables.
> >
> > Make sense?
> >
> >
> > Hal
> >
> >
>