Atom pollution

[Corrado Santoro]

Dear all,

I've read that atoms are not garbage collected. But suppose I use the 
following code:

a(String) -> b(list_to_atom(String)).

b(hello) -> ...
b(ciao) -> ...
b(bonjour) -> ...


String can be "hello", "ciao" or "bonjour".

What happens each time a/1 is called? Is a new atom created each time or 
there is a sort of "atom hash"?

Regards,
--Corrado

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Eng. Corrado Santoro, Ph.D.

University of Catania - Engineering Faculty
Department of Computer Science and
Telecommunications Engineering
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