Confusion with IRB output in Ruby when object#initialize is overloaded - ruby

Question

What I actually trying to see when no 'initialize' method is given to an class definition then the class as you said should call the "Object#initialize",which here I tried to customize and see if it has been called or not. With that approach I reached to a conclusion(although that's wrong), when I typed "ob = A .new" that yes I can overload the Object#initialize method.But all has been ended up with the below exception. Then I thought I did something wrong in my customization.So I tried to create the object creation within an exception block and when I typed "begin" and pressed "ENTER" - i got the same error.
>> class A
>> def Object.new initialize
>> p "hi"
>> rescue
>> end
>> end
=> nil
>> begin # <~~~ Here I have pressed on ENTER
"hi" #<~~~~ How was it print out?
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-token.rb:94:in `Token': undefined method `set_backtrace' for "hi":String (NoMethodError)
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:348:in `block in lex_init'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/slex.rb:236:in `call'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/slex.rb:236:in `match_io'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/slex.rb:221:in `match_io'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/slex.rb:75:in `match'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:286:in `token'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:262:in `lex'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:233:in `block (2 levels) in each_top_level_statement'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:229:in `loop'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:229:in `block in each_top_level_statement'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:228:in `catch'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-lex.rb:228:in `each_top_level_statement'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb.rb:155:in `eval_input'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb.rb:70:in `block in start'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb.rb:69:in `catch'
from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb.rb:69:in `start'
from /usr/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'
#ubuntu:~$
Now my questions are -
How has the "hi" been printed?
What is the cause of the error as printed above?
If such initialize definition is not allowed,then why has the error not come after I ended with the class definition?
EDIT
As per #casper I tried below:
>> def Object.new
>> p "hi"
>> end
=> nil
>> begin
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/ruby-token.rb:96: stack level too deep (SystemStackError)
But here no "hi" printed back.
So what made the "hi" to print back in the first case?

Answer 1

What exactly are you trying to do? You just redefined Object.new, so there is no surprise you make everything go haywire.
You can basically get the same effect by just:
>> def Object.new
>> end
>> [press enter]
KABOOM
The reason "hi" is printed is that someone just called Object.new, probably the irb REPL loop, and it expected an object, but instead it gets gobledygook.
You can also try this:
def Object.new *args
p args
end
And you will see funny stuff. However you won't be able to quit irb or do anything useful with it after that. Again: you just broke Object.
To make some sense of it you should read this:
In Ruby, what's the relationship between 'new' and 'initialize'? How to return nil while initializing?
And then you can try this:
class Object
class << self
alias :old_new :new
end
end
Now you can do:
def Object.new *args
p args
old_new *args
end
This won't break new because you are still calling the old version of it. However you will now be printing out stuff every time someone calls new.