Pascal GUICHARD <pascal.guichard / gmail.com> wrote:

> - on pointers, i try to understand (howto implement) datastructures
> in which you need to mix values and references/poiters

You cannot use values in Ruby directly.  There are only references.  Think 
of Ruby as Java without POD's.  In practice there are some optimizations for 
Fixnums, Symbols and some other types but conceptually (i.e. from a usage 
point of view) you never see values directly.

x = nil
x = Object.new
x = "foo"
x = 123

Here "x" is always a reference variable - like every other variable is a 
reference variable.  It's so simple but sometimes difficult to get used to - 
especially when coming from other programming languages.

Kind regards

    robert