On Oct 27, 2007, at 11:56 AM, Alex Karasulu wrote:
Hi Emmanuel, and others,
I was taking another look at these ServerEntry interfaces etc and
noticed that you define
the clone() method as supported within the interfaces themselves.
I may be wrong but I've always tried to avoid defining the clone()
method in interfaces and
have gone to great lengths to avoid using the clone() method. I
prefer to use factories or
constructors instead. For me the clone operation is scary and
leads to a lot of confusion.
Most of the time unless I have to support it because of a class I'm
extending I will deal with
it but when I can I try to avoid it.
Emmanuel was wondering if you see supporting clone() as critical
and recommend we keep
it?
I know just having a feeling is not enough to say using clone is
dangerous but I've always ran
into issues with it and the variance in the semantics to the point
where dealing with it was not
worth the trouble.
Please could anyone with a clearer understanding of the pros and
cons provide some further
guidance on this topic?
I doubt I have a clearer understanding but Joshua Bloch's Effective
Java has 8 pages pointing out how hard it is to write clone methods
correctly and the problems they cause and how copy constructors or
factory methods have much clearer semantics and implementations. I
never feel like I know what is going to happen when I call clone :-)
thanks
david jencks
Thanks,
Alex
