From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-07-12T14:01:03+09:00
Subject: Re: alias new???

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006, Logan Capaldo wrote:

> Couple of things
> 1) alias_method gets executed at "compile" time. This means that it will try 
> to alias MagicWithNew.
>
> 2) This is ok because you dont want to use alias's in this case. Since #new 
> is almost never overriden (it's usually #initialize. Incidentally are you 
> sure you don't want to define #initialize instead?) it's pretty much 
> guaranteed that you class is using the original implementation in Class.
> so we can use inheritance and super
>
>
> module MagicWithNew
>  def new(*args, &block)
>    if some_condition
>       do_special_stuff

   fails to initialize object!  you need the old 'new' here.  or super.


>    else
>       super
>    end
>  end
> end
>
> class MyClass
>  extend MagicWithNew # note #extend,  not #include
> end

here is an example of a fairly robust pattern

   harp:~ > cat a.rb
   module M
     ClassMethods = lambda do
       alias_method '__new__', 'new'  # correct alias of new

       def new *a, &b
         obj = __new__(*a, &b)
       #
       # do anything you want with obj here based on any condition.  this is just
       # an example.
       #
         class << obj
           def answer() 42 end
         end
         obj
       end
     end

     def self.included other
       meta =
         class << other
           self
         end
       meta.module_eval &ClassMethods
       super
     end
   end

   class C
     include M
   end

   p C.new.answer

   harp:~ > ruby a.rb
   42


regards.

-a
-- 
suffering increases your inner strength.  also, the wishing for suffering
makes the suffering disappear.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama