From: Tanaka Akira <akr@...17n.org>
Date: 2003-07-09T12:34:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Marshaling objects partially

In article <1057720032.125208.13426.nullmailer@picachu.netlab.jp>,
  matz@ruby-lang.org (Yukihiro Matsumoto) writes:

> By this change, _dump() and _load() can return/receive arbitrary
> object, not only string.

When object A and B refer each other, which _load is called first?

  class C
    def _dump ... end
    def C._load(obj) ... end
  end
    
  A = C.new
  B = C.new
  A.instance_eval { @ref = B; @xxx = STDIN }
  B.instance_eval { @ref = A; @xxx = STDIN }

  m = Marshal.dump(A)

  Marshal.load(m)

If _load for A is called first, it cannot initialize @ref to copy of B
because it is not exist yet.

If _load for B is called first, it cannot initialize @ref to copy of A
because it is not exist yet.

So, I think _load should be an instance method.
(See [ruby-dev:18312] for details.)
-- 
Tanaka Akira