Personally I prever to avoid long lazy initializations, so I have it nice and
tidy in a single method.
MyClass>>#property
^ property ifNil: [ property := self bar collect: #food ]
If I want to initialize the value in a separate method (typically for testing
or reuse), then I prefer to avoid state mutation there and instead I return the
result.
MyClass>>#property
^ property ifNil: [ property := self createNewProperty ]
MyClass>>createNewProperty
"I won't touch property instance variable here, just create a new value
and return it"
^ self bar collect: [ :e | e drink ]
> an initializationMethod returning the value instead of the receiver is a code
> smell to me.
For this reason I tend to name such methods createNewX, initializeX says to me
"only mutate state and return self"
Peter
