From: dlc@... (Dave Carmean)
Date: 2002-01-23T10:53:05+09:00
Subject: Newbie: simple data-type problem

I need to create a data type that is essentially an unsigned 16-bit 
integer; eventually a subclass will use it to represent (elapsed) 
time in seconds, and will be able to display and be initialized in 
terms of an integer nubmer of seconds, or in a "wdhms" format.

What I though I'd try is to create a class which inherits from 
Fixnum, and do range checking in the initializer.  Doesn't work. 
Can't figure out how to initialize it, because Fixnum doesn't have 
a new() method.

So then I tried what I would do in perl: make a wrapper and 
use method_missing() as I would AUTOLOAD in perl.  But since 
my new class already has so many built-in methods, stuff that 
I'd want sent to the contained Fixnum gets intercepted.

What is "The Ruby Way" to do this?

Thanks

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