@hgroeneveld said:
What is passed to " def initialize(show_dialog)"???
The initialize() method is an "internal" Ruby method that all Ruby class objects have. IF you do not override it, the class just inherits a copy from it's superclass.
This initialize() method is called automatically by Ruby at the end of the new() class constructor method, after new() has created the instance. Realize that initialize() is an instance method, and new() is a class method, therefor new() calls the initialize() instance method, in the instance object, that it just created, passing along the entire argument list it itself received.
So when you do:
@dlg = ShowDialog.new("Plugin Options")
The new() method (internally,) will create the new instance of the ShowDialog class, (referenced internally as obj,) and THEN call the new instance's initialize() instance method, passing it the string argument "Plugin Options", like:
obj.initialize("Plugin Options")
Lastly, the new() method returns it's internal local reference to obj, which you then assign to a reference in the outer scope. In the example above, that reference is the @dlg variable.
@hgroeneveld said:
I put a msgbox there, but it never gets triggered...
UI.messagebox() is a Ruby method, that when evaluated (after the messagebox closes,) returns nil, so in effect you would be passing nil into the initialize() method.
So.. whatever arguments that you want to pass into the new instance, at creation time, are passed via the class constructor method new(), and YOU must override the instance method initialize() in order to process those arguments, whatever they may be. (Usually by assigning them to instance variables that the instance will later use.)
This is all in Ruby, Part I, Chapter 2, Classes, Objects, and Variables
