Is there a better way? If not, is this a reasonable feature request, that
is, to _really_ clear all messages so the object can be reused for batch
ops.
What exactly is the feature request?
If you check out Zend_Form, it has been designed such that when its
cloned, it will actually enforce cloning throughout all of its consumed
objects (elements, sub-forms, and display groups). So it is already
capable of being "safely" cloned.
http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/trunk/library/Zend/Form.php
In general, cloning is a great object-oriented technique for doing
exactly what you want. Also, generally speaking, cloning is typically
(depending on the implementation of __clone in the target class), much
faster than building an object graph from scratch.
Cheers!
-ralph
