> I used a lot of Pascal in the past. Now I started to write a program
> with FreePascal and found out about object oriented programming. I think
> it is great (!), but I would like some help on details about
> Constructors and Destructors and their use:

> 1. Obviously you should destruct what you construct when you don't need
> it anymore. But if I have a function which returns an object, I
> construct it at the beginning (and now I know I have to) but when do I
> destruct it? It is al taken care by the compiler or what?
> For example:

> function myfunction(myarg:Real):myclass;
> begin
>   myfunction:=myclass.init;  file://init is a constructor of class myclass
>   myfunction.afunctionofmyclass(myarg);
> end;

> begin
>   myobject:=myclass.init;
>   myarg:=5;
>   myobject:=myfunction(myarg);
>   ...
>   myobject.done;
> end.

> So, I constructed the object myobject and destructed it. BUT I created
> the object myfunction but never destroyed it... Is this correct? (Well,
> it works, but I wonder if I leave a lot of garbage...)

> 2. This one is somewhat related: Can I use the Constructor more than
> once for the same object? For example:

> begin
>   myobject:=myclass.init(1);
>   ...
>   myobject:=myclass.init(2);
>   ...
>   myobject.done;
> end.

> Thanks in advance

> Manuel Correa

> --
>  Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not
> simpler. Albert Einstein

> why do you construct the object twice??

> first you construct the object with the following line:

>     myobject := myclass.init;

> then your MyFunction (MyArg:Real): MyClass; function constructs also a
> object.

> when you used the following line:
>     myobject:=myfunction(myarg);

> this creates a new object (done in your myfunction function) and replaces
> the old object (which surely gets lost, and cannot
> be used anymore)..

> but if you want initailize a object using a function, you just leave the
> following line out:

>     myobject := myclass.init;

> since it will be initialized in your function.

>> why do you construct the object twice??
>> since it will be initialized in your function.

>Yes, that is what I wanted to do. Thank you.

> Yes, that is what I wanted to do. Thank you.

> In article <3ACC7C73.DC117...@civil.ist.utl.pt>, Manuel Ritto Correa wrote:
> >"Santing, Peter" wrote:

> >> why do you construct the object twice??
> >> since it will be initialized in your function.

> >Yes, that is what I wanted to do. Thank you.

> I often found it handy to think of classes as pointers to records for this
> kind of cases. (which they in fact are, with some extra's)

>> In article <3ACC7C73.DC117...@civil.ist.utl.pt>, Manuel Ritto Correa wrote:
>But now, after some experiments, reading some tuttorials (mostly C++ I
>am afraid) and after some help from a nice guy from canada who e-mailed
>me, I think I understand the difference and what I am dealing with. :-)
>Anyway, tell me if I am right: either you use the Class type or the
>Object type, not both of them because it gets messy, right ?

> The class type more or less supersedes the Object type in FPC.
> For new code there isn't much reason to use Object except BP compability.

> So I would simply stick to Object if it has to be compatible with BP, and
> class otherwise (Class is source compatible to Delphi btw)

>> >Anyway, tell me if I am right: either you use the Class type or the
>> >Object type, not both of them because it gets messy, right ?

>> The class type more or less supersedes the Object type in FPC.
>> For new code there isn't much reason to use Object except BP compability.

>> So I would simply stick to Object if it has to be compatible with BP, and
>> class otherwise (Class is source compatible to Delphi btw)

>OK. Thanks for making that clear. I see that you are part of the
>FreePascal team, so I suggest that maybe that remark should be
>incorporated in the reference manual. At least for those guys like me
>that are learning OOP with FreePascal...