[Cilib-users] getClone(), why it exists

[Gary P. <gpa...@cs...>]

Hi,

I was wondering why I added our own Cloneable interface to CIlib (after
Edwin asked me about it). I just looked at the javadoc associated with the
class and the reasons are actually rather obvious.

Currently within Java, java.util.Cloneable is a marker interface with no
methods defined within it. In Java, Object is defined to have the clone()
method, however, the method is protected and as a result you can only call
it from subclasses unless you change the access modifier.

The actual problem stems from the manner in which the generics in java
work. If the type parameter is not defined to have a particular starting
point, the default extended class will be Object, which is perfectly
correct from an object point of view. However, the accessor on Object is
protected and as a result you cannot invoke the method.

That was the reason for the introduction of our own Cloneable interface.

Regards,
Gary