com.mcdermottroe.exemplar
Interface Copyable<T>

Type Parameters:

T - The type of the implementing object. For example, if String implemented this interface it would do so as Copyable<String>.

All Known Implementing Classes:

Argument, ConsoleFormatter, CopyException, Enum, Exception, ExitCode, Generator, Generator, Generator, Generator, Generator, InputException, LanguageAPIPair, Lexer, LexerException, MessageException, Option, OutputException, ParameterEntityException, Parser, ParserException, PEDeclTable, PowerSet, Switch, Task, TaskLogHandler, Timer, XMLAggregateObject, XMLAlternative, XMLAttribute, XMLAttributeContentType, XMLAttributeDefaultType, XMLAttributeList, XMLContent, XMLDocumentType, XMLDocumentTypeException, XMLElement, XMLElementContentModel, XMLElementReference, XMLEntity, XMLExternalIdentifier, XMLJavaSourceGenerator, XMLMixedContent, XMLNamedObject, XMLNotation, XMLObject, XMLParserGenerator, XMLParserGeneratorException, XMLParserObjectGenerator, XMLParserObjectGeneratorTest.TrivialXMLParserObjectGenerator, XMLParserSourceGenerator, XMLParserSourceGeneratorTest.ExtendedDTDSourceGenerator, XMLParserSourceGeneratorTest.NoRBXMLParserSourceGenerator, XMLSequence

public interface Copyable<T>

This interface is designed to be a replacement for Cloneable and should rectify the problems that exist with it.

The following problems exist with Cloneable:

• It does not enforce that a Object.clone() method is public, so you can't clone instances of Cloneable without knowing the concrete class type.
• (Great-)grandchildren of Object are hard to clone properly if the intervening (grand)children do not implement Cloneable (and actually publicise Object.clone()).
• Object.clone() predates generics, so it returns an Object rather than the correct type. Coupled with the fact that casting a generified collection from Object is nigh-on impossible to do correctly, this makes cloning collection classes hard.

Since:

0.2

Method Summary

T	getCopy() Creates a deep copy of the current object and returns it.

Method Detail

getCopy

T getCopy()
          throws CopyException

Creates a deep copy of the current object and returns it.

Returns:

A deep copy of the current object.

Throws:

CopyException - if the copying encountered an exception.