From: dblack@...
Date: 2002-12-20T16:27:35+09:00
Subject: Re: can initialize b overloaded

Hi --

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Sambasivan LokeshKumar wrote:

> class Point
>
>    attr:x_pos,true
>    attr:y_pos,true
>
>    def initialize(x_pos,y_pos)
>    ...
>    end
>
> #can initialize b overloaded!
>
>    def initialize(some_instance_of_point)
>
>    @x_pos=some_instance_of_point.x_pos
>    ...
>    end
>
> end
>
> 1) Is the above snippet of code valid one in Ruby
> If not why?

It's valid, but it's not overloading: it's overriding.  The most
recently defined method of a given name will be called, so your first
definition of #initialize will be discarded.

There's a lot of discussion of method overloading, multiple dispatch,
etc. in the ruby-talk archive (http://www.ruby-talk.org).  (Mainly
discussion of why Ruby doesn't have them :-)

> 2) How to comment multilines?

=begin
...
=end

or multiple #'s.


David

-- 
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav