From: Yuri Leikind <YuriLeikind@...>
Date: 2002-10-11T19:56:27+09:00
Subject: Re: possible patch for singleton.rb


"Dave Thomas" <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> wrote in message
news:m265wao0b1.fsf@zip.local.thomases.com...
> leikind@mova.org (Yuri Leikind) writes:
>
> > What is peculiar is that you cannot pass any arguments
> > to the constructor when creating the object, that is, you
> > cannot do
> >
> >     a = SomeClass.instance(1,2,3)
> >
> > But it is trivial to enable it, here is the diff of singleton.rb:
>
> Except...
>
> How can a singleton have arguments to 'instance' when the underlying
> object is constructed only once? You get a kind of 'first one in wins'
> situation:
>
>
>     a = SomeClass.instance(1, 2, 3)
>
>     # ....
>
>     b = SomeClass.instance('a, 'b', 'c')
>
>     # ... Much confusion and gnashing of teeth
>
>
> Perhaps a better approach might be to have a call that sets the
> parameters to be used when the object is created:
>
>     SomeClass.set_init_args(1, 2, 3)
>
>     a = SomeClass.instance    -- will do   new(1, 2, 3)
>
>     b = SomeClass.instance    -- will reuse existing object
>
> It would be a runtime error to call set_init_args more than once or
> call it after the object has been created.

This approach is perhaps wiser than mine. The only thing is
that we are complicating Singleton by adding a class method

Best regards,
Yuri Leikind