Re: new overloading feature?

cm@leetspeak.org writes: > I don't think it's "really clean" to not return a *new* instance with a > *new* call. I'm not sure what kind of advantage it gives you over a private > constructor and a static getInstance($n) function. "Really clean" in that I believe that it's the class' business what it returns. If the class wants to be a singleton, the user of the class doesn't even need to know it is getting the same object returned each time it asks for a "new" one. If the class wants to return a pre-existing object in some cases but a newly-allocated object in other cases, I believe that's up to the class, not to the caller. That is a characteristic of the design of the class. (I can envision alternative viewpoints, however. :-) Given my viewpoint, letting the caller request a "new" object each time (when in fact the class intentionally -- sometimes or always -- returns a pre- existing object because that's the design of the class), seems clean. Two responses, two negatives. Ok, I withdraw the request. :-) I will not belabor the point further, but will be glad to discuss the merits of this and its implementation if any one else feels it could be a useful feature. Cheers, Derrell