I found the following useful

    include Curses

    DISPATCH = Hash.new(:beep)
    DISPATCH[?A]         = :abort       # abort
    DISPATCH[?h]         = :key_help    # show help
    # ...
    DISPATCH[?z]         = :undo        # undo previous move

for implementing a keystroke command dispatch table.

Regards, Morton

On Jul 14, 2006, at 9:02 PM, transfire / gmail.com wrote:

> Is this form of Hash initialization really very useful?
>
>      Hash.new(obj)                     => aHash
>
>       If _obj_ is specified, this single object will be used for all
> _default values_.