Symbol - Port of Javascript's Symbol primitive type

use Symbol;

say Symbol('ayy lmao');                                # OUTPUT: Symbol('ayy lmao')
say Symbol('ayy lmao')     =:= Symbol('ayy lmao');     # OUTPUT: False
say Symbol.for('ayy lmao') =:= Symbol.for('ayy lmao'); # OUTPUT: True

Symbol is a port of Javascript's Symbol primitive type. This implements creating Symbol instances, but not the behaviour of well-defined symbols.

Symbol's purpose is to provide a way to create objects that are guaranteed to be unique. Optionally, they can be provided with a description, which is mainly used when stringifying them.

• Str $.description

The description of the symbol. This is the string passed to Symbol.CALL-ME or Symbol.for.

• method CALL-ME(Symbol:U: Str $description? --> Symbol:D)

Creates a new symbol given $description.

Though its signature states that the description is optional, Symbol() does not create a symbol with no description; that actually ends up being a type coercion. To create a symbol with no description, use Symbol(Nil).

• method for(Symbol:U: Str $description? --> Symbol:D)

If no symbol instantiated using Symbol.for already exists, creates a new symbol given $description, otherwise returns the one that already exists.

• method gist(Symbol:D: --> Str:D)

Stringifies the symbol like in Javascript.

• method Str(Symbol:D: --> Str:D)

Stringifies the symbol like in Javascript.

• method perl(Symbol:D: --> Str:D0

Stringifies the symbol like in Javascript.

Ben Davies (Kaiepi)

Copyright 2019 Ben Davies

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.