Hello Michael,

Thursday, February 20, 2003, 3:58:17 PM, you wrote:

MB> h[5] = 3; e = h[5]; e = 7
MB> h[8] = C.new ; c = h[8] ; c.v = 7

these lines are very different. vars in ruby holds
pointers to objects. array elements and class members
also holds pointers. "=" operaion sets variable
to point to object evaluated on the right

"c=h[8]" sets c and h[8] to point to the same object.
"c.v=7" modifies this object

"e=h[5]" sets e and h[5] to point to the same object.
but "e=7" changes e to point to another object

so after all above you will have 3 objects pointed by 4 variables/array elements
(h[5],e,h[8],c)


-- 
Best regards,
 Bulat                            mailto:bulatz / integ.ru