On Jan 6, 2006, at 8:48, Ross Bamford wrote:

> On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:40:36 -0000, Dave Howell 
> <groups / grandfenwick.net> wrote:
>
>> P. S. With duck-typing as a Virtue in Rubyville, when am I ever going 
>> to be presented with a method that won't accept a String as well as a 
>> Symbol? Would there ever be a reason besides "bad programming" to be 
>> that restrictive?
>>
>
> Here's one:
>
> 	f = File.read(:"/etc/passwd")
>
> 	TypeError: can't convert Symbol into String

Hmm. But that's the opposite of what I said. I'm not too dismayed if 
something says "no, no, I don't want a Symbol. I want an honest-to-gosh 
String." It's if it says "No, a String is unacceptable. I only take 
Symbols" that I'd be really perplexed.