From: Craig Lee <craig@rush.aero.org> Subject: Re: [saga-rg] deep copy / shallow copy
But, one could argue that when programming in a given language, the copy/assignment operator will be used for both SAGA and non-SAGA objects. That is to say, the programmer should be/will be aware of the copy/assignment semantics throughout the program.
Nicely put, Craig! That's what I tried to say...
I agree that differing copy/assignment semantics could cause problems for a programmer, but I don't see how a SAGA binding could dictate copy/assignment semantics that are different from a language's "native" semantics. Besides being difficult or impossible to implement, this means that different objects within a single program could have different copy/assignment behavior, depending on whether they were SAGA or non-SAGA objects. This, too, could cause problems.
I think this should be left as a language binding issue. Nonetheless, the SAGA API doc could have a prominent "Advice to Practitioners" section that identifies and discusses these binding pitfalls.
Sounds right to me. Thilo -- Thilo Kielmann http://www.cs.vu.nl/~kielmann/