From: "Mauricio Fernández" <batsman.geo@...>
Date: 2003-03-26T18:29:16+09:00
Subject: Re: [EG] multiton design pattern

On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 08:25:06AM +0900, ara howard wrote:
> i did this so many times i decided to put it in one place.  i've found
> it to be more usefull that true singletons - which it can still be
> used as.

Is 'multiton' a standard term?
By looking at the code, I'd say it corresponds mostly to GoF's Flyweight pattern 
(or rather to a specific instance of it :-)
 
I've found one reference that backs my impression up:
[ruby-list:21671] GoF's Flyweight Pattern
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-list/21671

> # a = SomeMultitonClass.instance(4)
> # b = SomeMultitonClass.instance(4)	# a and b are same object
> # c = SomeMultitonClass.instance(2)     # c is a different object
> #
> # print([a.arg,b.arg].max, c.arg, "\n")
> #
> # a = SomeMultitonClass.new		# error (`new' is private)
> 

Convenient and thread-safe!

Neat! 
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