On 10/16/12 3:41 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:
I think with D's compile-time introspection capabilities, it _should_ be
possible to implement a generic deepCopy template that works for any
type.
Of course, then one has to address tricky issues such as complex data
structures that have interlinking parts; a blind recursive deep-copy may
not have the desired effect (e.g., if we're deep-copying a graph and
there are multiple paths (via references) to the same node, then we
shouldn't end up with multiple copies of that node). Some care will also
need to be taken to deal with cyclic structures, etc.. And some
optimizations can probably be done to avoid copying immutable objects,
since that would be a waste of time& memory.
Probably some kind of graph traversal algorithm can be used to address
these issues, I think, perhaps with the help of an AA or two to recreate
the original linking structure in the copy.
Yes, deepDup should be implementable as a library and use a temporary
dictionary of already-duplicated items to avoid infinite recursion.
We should add that to Phobos - could you please add a task to trello.
Andrei
