From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-10-29T20:59:50+09:00
Subject: Cloning only when necessary

Hi,

if you want to make sure you get a copy of an instance that nobody
else has access to you can #clone it.  That's not necessary if the
instance is immutable or frozen (or both).  Does anybody think it is a
good idea to implement this?  E.g.

class Object
  def frown
    frozen? ? self : clone
  end
end

class Numeric
  def frown
    self
  end
end

...

The you can do in constructor code for example

def initialize(something)
  @x = something.frown
end

and be sure that you do not face aliasing issues with @x.  Does
anybody think we should have this in the language?

Note: The name is remotely inspired by "FReeze" and "OWN".  I'm not
religious about it, not at all.  It's just that I could not make up a
better one.  Suggestions welcome.

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/