There is a lot of confusion on this one. While I know for sure that there are low level compiled languages that will allow the pointers to be explicitly OR implicitly called (i.e. you are not *required* to use the dereference) I do not believe that an interpreted language would employ specific pointers. That having been said, what is everyone basing their positions upon? Is this more of a debate about what things are or how to word them to others? Where did everyone look in the docs or source code to figure this out? -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.