

Thinking about Ruby's Symbols - danielmorrison
http://collectiveidea.com/blog/archives/2011/10/23/thinking-about-rubys-symbols/

======
lukev
This still doesn't capture what is IMHO the most easy, accurate way to think
about symbols:

Symbols are not variables or objects, they are _values_. They work almost
exactly like a string, except that they're interned so they're much more
efficient (particularly for comparisons, which is what makes them great for
hash keys).

In fact, you can use strings interchangeably with symbols in many libraries
(including most places in Rails).

