ome.util.mem

Interface Copiable

All Known Subinterfaces:

PlaneArea

All Known Implementing Classes:

CopiableArray, EllipseArea, Handle, RectangleArea

public interface Copiable

Requires an implementing class to provide deep copies of its instances. More precisely, an invocation of the copy method, such as y = x.copy(), is required to return an object y for which the following conditions hold true:

• The state of y is the same as the state of x.
• The state of any object w referenced by y is the same as the corresponding object referenced by x, and so on recursively for every object referenced by w.
• Any subsequent state change in y or, recursively, in any other object referenced by y, is not going to affect x or recursively, any other object referenced by x.

Note that a deep copy would satisfy the above conditions. However, a non-complete deep copy might comply with the above as well — for example immutable objects don't need to be copied.

Since:

OME2.2

Version:

2.2 (Internal version: $Revision$ $Date: 2005/06/09 15:01:57 $)

Author:

Jean-Marie Burel j.burel@dundee.ac.uk,
Andrea Falconi a.falconi@dundee.ac.uk

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Object	copy() Makes a copy of this object.

Method Detail

copy

Object copy()

Makes a copy of this object. The implementation is required to stick to the copy semantics defined by this interface.

Returns:

The new object.