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comp.lang.ruby

Re: question about initialize

Zachary Holt

6/12/2007 5:48:00 PM

On Jun 12, 2007, at 10:34 AM, Mike Steiner wrote:

> Why is the constructor method named initialize? Why not name it new
> to be
> consistent?
Typically, :new is a class method, which calls the instantiated
object's :initialize instance method, if one is available, with the
parameters passed to :new.
You can override the class method :new (this is a good place to use
super), but be sure to return the newly minted object. Often you can
just override the :initialize instance method, however.

If there's no :new class method in your class definition, then you're
getting Object.new (or some other super class's :new).
3 Answers

Gavin Kistner

6/12/2007 5:55:00 PM

0

Mike Steiner wrote:
> Why is the constructor method named initialize? Why not name it new
> to be consistent?

I had this same question when I first started out. The answer I came
to realize is that "new" is a class method that allocates the object,
and "initialize" is the instance method that does the per-object setup
you want.

For more details on how I came to realize this, read the "new versus
initialize" section of this post:
Short URL: http://rubyu...
Full URL:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/tree/browse_frm/thread/c3b22bf2d53bd68b/72313022abed07f9?rnum=1&q=matz+is+smart&_done=%2Fgroup%2Fcomp.lang.ruby%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fthread%2Fc3b22bf2d53bd68b%2F1b4160db0a57e90f%3Flnk%3Dgst%26q%3Dmatz%2Bis%2Bsmart%26rnum%3D1%26#doc_723130...

Roger Pack

11/20/2008 11:46:00 PM

0

>> Why is the constructor method named initialize? Why not name it new
>> to be
>> consistent?
> Typically, :new is a class method, which calls the instantiated
> object's :initialize instance method, if one is available, with the
> parameters passed to :new.
> You can override the class method :new (this is a good place to use
> super), but be sure to return the newly minted object. Often you can
> just override the :initialize instance method, however.
>
> If there's no :new class method in your class definition, then you're
> getting Object.new (or some other super class's :new).

Would it be better to have initialize called 'on_new' so that the
connection is more firm?
Thoughts?
-=R
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

Eleanor McHugh

11/21/2008 8:56:00 PM

0

On 20 Nov 2008, at 23:46, Roger Pack wrote:
>>> Why is the constructor method named initialize? Why not name it new
>>> to be
>>> consistent?
>> Typically, :new is a class method, which calls the instantiated
>> object's :initialize instance method, if one is available, with the
>> parameters passed to :new.
>> You can override the class method :new (this is a good place to use
>> super), but be sure to return the newly minted object. Often you can
>> just override the :initialize instance method, however.
>>
>> If there's no :new class method in your class definition, then you're
>> getting Object.new (or some other super class's :new).
>
> Would it be better to have initialize called 'on_new' so that the
> connection is more firm?
> Thoughts?

Unfortunately :on_new assumes that :initialize is only ever called
from :new, which isn't always the case.


Ellie

Eleanor McHugh
Games With Brains
http://slides.games-with-...
----
raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason