Question

I feel it is weird to create an object by calling “new”, but in class definition the initializer is called “initialize”. I tried to make it consistent(to be called “new” in both class definition and outside) so I tried the code below using alias_method:

class Class
    alias_method :initialize :new
end

class Foo
    def new
        puts "bar"
    end
end

f = Foo.new

I thought when I alias new as initialize, it will call initialize, and initialize is the alias of new so it will call new. But it is not working, and give errors:

SyntaxError: test.rb:2: syntax error, unexpected ':'

    alias_method :initialize :new
                              ^

Apparently new is a key word and cannot be aliased. But any way around?

---

Update:

Sorry I missed the comma in the alias_method

After adding the comma, the script runs without error. But it does not output “bar” so new method is not called. I am not sure why this will not work as comments below…

Answer 1

I have no idea what the implications are for overriding Object#initialize. I wouldn’t sleep well at night with this in my code but how about something like:

class Object
  def initialize
    new if self.respond_to?(:new)
  end
end

class Foo
  def new
    puts "BAR"
  end
end

Foo.new