[chef] Re: Symbol attribute syntax deprecated? was: How do I test an attribute value in an

[Aaron Peterson < >]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 08:25, Daniel DeLeo 
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 wrote:
>
> On Monday, June 27, 2011 at 2:09 AM, Tim Diggins wrote:
>> Hi Denis -
>>
>> <
 
>>  
>> (mailto:
 )>
>>  wrote:
>> > Hello Tim!
>> >
>> > Where did you get that accessing attributes with symbol notation is 
>> > deprecated? Could you please tell.
>>
>> Opscode training course (unless I misunderstood... maybe someone from 
>> opscode or a core committer can weigh in here
>>
>> However I'm not sure it's "deprecated pending removal" more "deprecated 
>> because it's confusing" (and can get hard (or impossible?) to represent in 
>> symbol literal notation).
> Right, there are no plans to remove it. If you know your way around symbols 
> in ruby, feel free to use it. As you said, the tricky part is expressing 
> something like "foo-bar" as a symbol literal. This can be done, but for 
> someone who is new to both Chef and Ruby, it's easier to stick with 
> strings, which I believe is why we make this recommendation in the training 
> classes.
>

Yes - having been part of that conversation that's totally it.  It's
easier to say "quote it" than explain special cases, name space
overlap (and method_missing), character constraints, and escaping.  By
the time you actually might care to use symbols stylistically or
whatever, you can learn to wield them safely on your own.

If we do use the actual term "deprecated" somewhere, point it out to
us, as we shouldn't.

-- 
Aaron Peterson 
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Opscode Technical Evangelist