Hi --

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006, Li Chen wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I define two classes, one with and the other without initialize method.
> But I can call them with the same  method new. I am not sure how to
> explain them but I guess there are some kinds of default settings within
> Ruby. Any comments?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Li
>
> ##
>
> class X
>  puts "x"
> end
>
> class Y
>  def initialize
>    puts "y"
>  end
> end
>
>
> X.new
> Y.new
>
>
>> ruby variables4.rb
> x
> y

Try the program with this line:

   X.new

removed or commented out.  You'll get the same output.  The reason is
that the statement:

   puts "x"

is executed when the class definition is executed.  puts "y", however,
is inside an instance method (initialize), so it isn't executed until
there's an instance (and in this case, since it's an
automatically-called constructor, you don't have to call it
explicitly).


David

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