From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01@...>
Date: 2008-02-16T13:03:34+09:00
Subject: Re: object specific methods and id


On Feb 15, 2008, at 2:14 PM, UpsNDowns wrote:

> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Gary Wright wrote:
>> UpnsNDowns:  You have to be careful about thinking of the object
>> as an instance of its eigenclass.  It is a useful analogy but it
>> is just that, an analogy.
>
> Oh. I was reading the book by the programmatic programmers and I  
> believe it says quite clearly that the object becomes an instance  
> of the singleton. Anyway, do you have a reference (pref web) for  
> the analogy?

Nothing comes to mind. This thread pointed out that if it was  
*really* an instance of the singleton class then instance.class would  
return the singleton class, but it doesn't.  Another difference is  
that the singleton class and its superclass are outside the class  
hierarchy that created the instance in the first place.  Another  
difference is that the instance exists before its singleton class,  
which is the opposite of the normal class/instance relationship.

These are the types of things I was getting at when I said that the  
analogy was imperfect.

Gary Wright