From: "Paul E.C. Melis" <paul@...>
Date: 2002-10-17T19:46:45+09:00
Subject: Multiple constructors in a .c extension?

Hello,
I was wondering if it is wise/common practice/allowed to have multiple
constructors for a class defined in a C extension.
Specifically, I'm currently doing the following in my extension:

rb_define_singleton_method(c..., "new", t_new, 1);
rb_define_singleton_method(c..., "new_from_file", t_new_from_file, 1);

With both calls a structure is allocated and wrapped with
Data_Wrap_Struct(), followed by rb_obj_call_init() on the created object.

The idea of course is to be able to say
obj1 = MyClass.new(...)
and
obj2 = MyClass.new_from_file('some_file')
in my script.

The defined initialize method in the extension actually does nothing, so I
would rather leave it out. I don't see any reason myself why object
construction and initialization can't be done completely by the C functions
implementing new and new_from_file. Is there anything special about the
"new" singleton method other than that it implicitly calls "initialize"?

Thanks,
Paul