Jacek Olszak <jacekolszak / o2.pl> wrote:
> Hi everyone...
>
> I've just read the Pragmatic Programming Ruby book. But I don't
> understand one thing : why should I use symbols (colon sign before
> the variable name) ie. :name ?
>
> Regards
> Jacek
> http://jacekolszak.blogspot.com

Because they are immutable, fast and less memory consuming.  They are 
typically used for a limited and known set of keys.

Kind regards

    robert


PS: Added to http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?RubyTalkPermaThreads