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Dmitry Tsepelev

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Why Ruby has symbols

Most Ruby engineers know the difference between symbols and strings from a usage perspective. So, in this article I look at them from a different angle.

You’ll learn about a cool compiler optimization called “string interning”, which is used in many languages. Also, you will understand what happens when (almost any) interpreter runs your code, take a look at the AST and take a peak at the symbols interpretation at the low level.

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