Hi, On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 13:49:43 +0900, Jeff Davis <jdavis-list / empires.org> wrote: > If MyClass.new calls the initialize method, what calls the new method? > What if both are defined? *You* call the new method. It's pre-defined in Class to work something like this: class Class def new obj = self.allocate # allocates the object obj.initialize # calls the object's initialize method return obj # returns the object end end You can redefine new to do anything you want, remembering that people will expect it to return an object of that class. cheers, Mark