From: Eivind Eklund <eeklund@...>
Date: 2007-03-20T21:06:55+09:00
Subject: Re: does Ruby not support multiple "initialize" methods for a class???

On 3/20/07, Greg Hauptmann <greg.hauptmann.ruby@gmail.com> wrote:
> Q1 - Does Ruby not support multiple "initialize" methods for a class?
>
> Q2 - If no is there a reason for this out of curiosity?
>
> Q3 - What approach is recommended if this constraint does exist?

I am not sure what you want to achieve here.  There is nothing magic
about initialize; it is just a method that is called from new.  Maybe
you're talking of multiple new methods instead of multiple initialize
methods?

new used to be magic; however, the magic has been moved, so these days
new is the same as

def Class.new(*args)
  object = allocate
  object.initialize(*args)
  object
end

with "allocate" being the 'magic' method to allocate new objects.
With this, you can easily create multiple new methods, too.

Eivind.