Just a few notes and some caution. I have implemented clone() on a lot of POJOs and there are some patterns that I follow:
1) You don't have to bother with primitives or Strings - the default behavior for Java objects covers those. Maybe all immutables too, I forget, but definitely Strings. 2) You really have to know that the the object you are calling clone() on is cloneable - a lot of classes aren't, in fact most aren't. I.E., it has to implement Cloneable. Object has a protected clone() method, but does not declare itself as Cloneable and that is correct; generally the best practice is to start the implementation of the clone() method at the base of your class heirarchy as each class should call the super.clone() method. If the parent class isn't cloneable then you may have problems. Also, any members must be cloneable or you will run into problems there too. There there are collections. I have methods to perform deep copies on the collections we have within classes, and this works okay for us because we have control over all of the class heirarchy, but that isn't guaranteed in Castor. There are some other idiosyncracies but that's the gist of it. I would think implementation of a generated clone() method might be problematic unless the developer was willing to tweak the implementation each time to make it correct and/or accept something that may not compile. -----Original Message----- From: Werner Guttmann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 12:39 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [castor-user] New feature request: generated clone method Byron, no, this is not available yet. How about raising a feature request at http://jira.codehaus-org/nrowse/CASTOR and attach the information provided in this email to the issue created ? With some guideance from our side, would you be willoing to provide us with an initial patch or work with us to get your ideas implemented/specified fully ? Regards Werner Phillips, Byron J wrote: > I'm currently using castor 0.9.6 and am interested in having castor > generate a clone method that, similar to the equals method, performs a > memberwise clone for each data member. For non-primitive type data > members, this clone method would be performed by calling that member's > clone method; for primitive types, the assignment operator would be used. > > Is this capability already available in a later release of Castor? > I've reviewed the release notes, but didn't see anything like it. > > Byron Phillips / LMTSS / 301-640-2283 / 870/2E20 > > /"When striving to get ahead of the game, ensure you are playing the > correct game." -- RabidAnt,_ Why, O Why!_/ > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list please visit: http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list please visit: http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
