Ruby class template based on attribs and a passed hash using mixins

gistfile1.rb

module Base

  def initialize args
    update args
  end

  def update args
    args.each do |k,v|
      instance_variable_set "@#{k}", v if respond_to? k
    end
  end

end


class Person
  attr_accessor :firstname, :lastname, :age
  include Base
end


class Dog
  attr_accessor :name, :age
  include Base
end

Define the initialize method in a mixin is not a good practice. At least, the arguments should be optionals.

def initialize(args = nil)
  update args if args
end

For something like this I prefer a mixin instead of a derived class. A derived class should be used only when the new class is a specialization of the parent. In this case, the mixin is just extending the functionality.

Well, I was creating a general class to make more specialized ones. I didn't see a good idea to have a mothod initialize in a mixin either, I do think is better a class...
I still don't see the advantage of using mixins here...