Re: when to use strings, when to use symbols

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

() Andy Wingo <address@hidden>
() Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:25:32 -0800

     * Use symbols when you want to match against
       a symbol literal in your source code.

     * Use strings otherwise.

Symbols are preferable whenever ‘eq?’ is important
(for whatever reason, depending on program design).
Many times that involves matching against a symbol
literal, but that's a specific case.

For example, if the accepted alist is intended for
key duplicates pruning, using a symbol in the key
means you can use ‘assq’ (i.e., ‘eq?’), which can
be (and usually is) more performant than ‘assoc’.