On 3/15/07, Tom Pollard <tomp / earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> On Mar 15, 2007, at 6:08 PM, TRANS wrote:
> > I would like to propose that the Multiton pattern be supported in
> > Ruby's standard library.
>
> Is 'multiton' really the right name for this?  I've used a pattern
> much like this in different contexts, but would usually describe such
> objects as 'immutable'.  If I can ask, what practical use cases did
> you have in mind for this?

Well, let me start with this:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiton_pattern

And you are absolutely right. It is related to immutability --it is in
fact how one generally goes about creating immutable objects. One can
of course handle it manually, but the advantages of a general lib are,
of course, what you get "for free": a common interface, thread-safety
and no issues with hash keys.

T.