On 16/02/2012, at 12:28 PM, Charles Oliver Nutter wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 12:25 AM, Kurt  Stephens =
<redmine / ruby-lang.org> wrote:
>> True, CRuby Symbols are not collected.  However, in general, this is =
not required for every implementation of "symbols".  There is an open =
bug to make CRuby Symbols collectable, but it will require C API =
changes.  What semantics prevent Ruby Symbols from being collected?
>=20
> The only thing that has prevented me from making symbols GCable in
> JRuby is the concern that someone might rely on the same symbol having
> the same ID forever.

That's clearly not the case if you define "forever" to mean "across =
program instances".
So if they save the object_id of a symbol somewhere, without still =
having a reference
to the symbol, they'll be broken if "somewhere" persists across =
instances, but not
if its persistence is only within the same instance.

I say do it, and let them whinge. My bet is they'll be too embarrassed =
to have done
such a grubby thing and won't even complain.

Clifford Heath.=