From: matz@... (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
Date: 2000-09-01T09:04:51+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:4711] Re: new, initialize, etc.

Hi,

In message "[ruby-talk:4705] new, initialize, etc."
    on 00/09/01, hal9000@hypermetrics.com <hal9000@hypermetrics.com> writes:

|As I see it, new is typically a class method which invokes the
|initialize method.
|
|First of all, why? I guess I can understand new being a class method,
|but why is initialize named differently? Why not just define new for
|the class and put the initializing code in there?

As Dave explained in [ruby-dev:4707], the instance creation is done in
two steps.  Why?  Because the `new' class method does not have special
privilege to access internal of the object.  It's naturally done by
the instance method (initialize) to initialize the object, 

|Second, I've read a little about finalizing objects; I'm not sure why
|or when to do it. And why do it that way, rather than just provide a
|method to be called by the GC when the object dies?

A finalizer like Java (a method to be called by GC) may "resurrect"
the unreferenced object.  It may result performance drawback.

|Finally, how are BEGIN and END supposed to be used? I've read what they
|do -- it seems to me they would be useful for modules -- but I don't
|actually grasp them. Are they completely unrelated to the concept of
|creating and destroying objects?

It's handy with -n/-o option for the interpreter.

							matz.