NARUSE, Yui wrote in post #1034078: >> Yes, but suppose you have the same symbol :sym occurring in two source files >> with distinct encodings. > > If they consist of ASCII characters, they are identical. > If they include non ASCII characters, they have distinct encoding and > are treated as different symbols. > >> Then, can :sym.to_s have two values depending on >> the file in which it is used ? > > Did you try it? Ah, I tried. If I understand well, non-ASCII symbols are a bit more than usual symbols, they carry an encoding. So two symbols may look identical, but be unequal due to encodings. _md -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.