On Wednesday 11 November 2009 09:22:30 Graeme Geldenhuys wrote: > Flávio Etrusco wrote: > > Graeme, I guess the OP didn't want to reintroduce the 'Create' > > constructor with lower visibility, just implement a second constructor > > with private visiblity. > > It can be useful when implementing singletons and factories to avoid > > some types of misuse by an unattentive coworker... > > The problem is that a constructor (in this case Create) in still always > public. So that unattentive coworker can very easily use the default > "public" Create() constructor and by-pass all your custom code in your > "private" constructor.
Just a thought: In FP, as with Delphi, TObject is the ultimate ancestor. Would it be possible to add a modified version of TObject to the RTL where a default constructor is not defined? I know that TObject has a lot of functionality but would it be possible for a user-defined class to be defined without having to inherit from anything? A sort of user-defined TObject? :=Nino > > So that pretty much makes your custom private constructor useless. Plus > if the class was instantiated with the default public Create(), there > could be many other side-effects due to the fact that it by-passed your > custom code. > > And yes I know, such a feature would be very handy for Singleton > implementations, but alternative solutions are possible. The same could > be applied to the original poster's code, without creating private or > protected constructors. > > A very quick and dirty solution would be to reimplement the public > Create() constructor and immediately raise an exception inside it, > explaining the problem. That way if any developer tries to use that > default constructor, they will get an error - instead of some silent > side-effect later on. Then implement a new public custom constructor > with your desired code. > > eg: > > TMyClass = class(TObject) > public > constructor Create; > constructor CreateCustom(param1: string); > end; > > ... > > constructor TMyClass.Create; > begin > raise Exception.Create('Please use CreateCustom instead'); > end; > > constructor TMyClass.CreateCustom(param1: string); > begin > inherited Create; // <- note inherited call to bypass Exception > FValue := param1; > .... > end; > > > No private or protected constructors are used and you are guiding the > developer to only use the CreatCustom constructor, ensuring your custom > code is executed. > > NOTE: > This is still not a perfect solution, but minimized the potential problems. > > > IIRC the last time this issue was raised you were on the side for > > removing the warning - my opinion too ;-) > > Maybe I learnt from my mistakes. ;-) > > > Regards, > - Graeme - _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal