On 2009-11-04, lith <minilith / gmail.com> wrote: >> gsub! can work because somewhere inside the object there is a hunk of storage >> which is separate from the object itself. ixnum has no such storage to >> refer to. > I don't think ruby makes the distinction between native types & > objects la java. Everything is an object. Not every object contains separate storage. When you write "a = 1; b = 1;", a and b do not refer to two separate objects which happen to have the same numeric value; they refer to a single object which has an immutable numeric value. You can't increment that value. -s -- Copyright 2009, all wrongs reversed. Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam / seebs.net http://www.seebs.net/log/ <-- lawsuits, religion, and funny pictures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_(Scientology) <-- get educated!