From: Gary Weaver <lists@...>
Date: 2012-09-26T03:13:33+09:00
Subject: could initialize return an existing object instead of a new instance?

Is it possible for initialize to return an existing object instead of a
new instance?

Specifically curious about whether it would be possible to implement a
StringPool in Ruby such that the same object with same object_id would
be returned if you tried to construct with the same value, unless a bang
method (like chomp!) were called on the object in which case instead of
returning the same object instance from the bang method, it would return
a different object instance. I told someone that this would be a massive
change since it would break these two assumptions:

s = "Hello"
s2 = "Hello"
# s.object_id != s2.object_id

s = "Hello"
original_object_id = s.object_id
s.chomp!('o')
# original_object_id == s.object_id

But, maybe if it were possible to develop this as a gem, people could
use at their own risk.

Also, it just seemed like a neat idea (not that it would work in the
String case?) if you could do something in the initializer to abandon
the instance that was being created and instead return a different
object from the initializer, like one that already exists. Even if this
isn't possible currently, what issues would one run into trying to
implement support for this? Thanks!

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