Issue #4893 has been updated by Shyouhei Urabe. Status changed from Rejected to Assigned Assignee set to Yukihiro Matsumoto OK, Ilias did his homework. It's your move matz. Though I don't like the call_initialize= thing (thread unsafe), the idea of calling initialize at string creation is clearly explained in the patch. I think it's worth considering. ---------------------------------------- Bug #4893: Literal Instantiation breaks Object Model http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/4893 Author: Lazaridis Ilias Status: Assigned Priority: Normal Assignee: Yukihiro Matsumoto Category: Target version: ruby -v: 1.9.2 #String2.rb class String def initialize(val) self.replace(val) puts object_id end def my_method_test 'has method <my_method_test>' end end # command line $ irb irb(main):001:0> original = String.new("original") => "original" irb(main):002:0> load "String2.rb" => true irb(main):003:0> altered = String.new("altered") 21878604 => "altered" irb(main):004:0> altered.my_method_test => "has method <my_method_test>" irb(main):005:0> literal = "literal" => "literal" irb(main):006:0> literal.my_method_test => "has method <my_method_test>" irb(main):007:0> - The initialize method is an integral part of the class String. From the moment that "String2.rb" is loaded, the initialize method of class String has been validly redefined. (The behaviour of the String class within the "irb session" is altered) The altered initialize method is now an integral part of the class String. The altered String object behaves as expected (responds to "my_method_test, initialized via redefined initialize method). The String(Literal) object responds to "my_method_test", but it is was not initialized with the redefined initialize method. - The "Literal Instantiation" calls the original (core-C-level) String initialize method instead of the redefined one (user-language-level). This *breaks* the object model. -- http://redmine.ruby-lang.org