gotoken / math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp (GOTO Kentaro) writes:

> Well, immediate and immutable are independent concept each other.
> Immediate value is an implementation technic only at least on Ruby but
> the immutableness is one of properties of objects.  I thinks integers
> are immutable even if non-immediate because I consider a numeric is
> free from its representation and integer[n] is an abbreviation of
> 
>   (("%b" % integer)[-1-n] || ?0).chr.to_i
> 
> But I may be wrong.  Your openion is reasonable if most users consider
> that a numeric is a bit container. 

But doesn't the existence of [] imply that numbers are a bitstring?