[ruby-talk:17436] Re: How to copy an object

On Sat, 7 Jul 2001, Jim Freeze wrote:

> On Sat, 7 Jul 2001, Avi Bryant wrote:
> 
> > Here's a somewhat cheesy solution:
> >
> > class Package
> > 	def clone
> > 		Marshal.load(Marshal.dump self)
> > 	end
> > end
> >
> If it is Parmesean cheese, then it is OK. :)
> What you suggest fixes the problem of manually
> specifying all the classes that Package may
> contain. What still remains is to put this
> burdon upon Box and not Package.

I don't think that's possible - what you're asking is for Box to affect
how Package makes copies of itself.  Since, in a default dup, it's only
the pointer to the contained Box that gets copied, no method of Box ever
gets called, and so it never has a chance to intervene.

What I would suggest instead is simply to do something like

module DeepCopy
	def clone
		Marshal.load(Marshal.dump self)
	end
end

and then include that module in Package and all similar classes.