As there is already __init__, why need a __new__? What can __new__ give us while __init__ can't? In what situations we should use __new__? And in what situations we must use __new__? Can __new__ take the place of __init__?
I believe the current documentation will be updated when 2.4.1 is released, but documentation for __new__ is now available at:
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/ref/customization.html
In short, you could use __new__ in place of __init__, but it's probably only useful to do so if you need to change an instance *before* it's created. In general, if you aren't subclassing an immutable type, and you're not sure that you need __new__, you probably don't.
STeVe -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
