I guess if you want to save some key strokes and you use symbols as keys you can use the new syntax.
The other cool/different thing about Hash in 1.9 is that it preserves order.
> Hashes enumerate their values in the order that the corresponding keys were inserted.
from http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Hash.html
So, hashes can be considered ordered in 1.9. It's a mistake to corrupt the data structure, in my opinion, but apparently that boat has now sailed. Thanks for the prod to recheck and sorry about the outdated info.
PS. Ruby 1.9 does have a native OrderedHash, the same as the one from ActiveSupport.
I guess if you want to save some key strokes and you use symbols as keys you can use the new syntax.
The other cool/different thing about Hash in 1.9 is that it preserves order.