Quoting [Thilo Kielmann] (Sep 12 2005):

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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.

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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.

The question is if there are language native semantics for these - from what I learned, there are no clear conventions. So, yes, we could leave that to the language bindings. But it might make sense to add a statement to the general spec such as: "unless defined otherwise by the language bindings, copy and assignement operators will perform a shallow copy" or so.

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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.

Right, that probably is the same at the end. Thanks, Andre.

Thilo

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