Wyrm Tools - 2006-07-02

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An attempt was made to implement a subset of the changes
that are required by this FREQ. The task was aborted
after it was determined that the amount of accessor code
that must be wrapped in a transaction was not going to be
addressable in the timeframe before the next minor release.

However, one insight I had while working on this task was
the possibility of moving towards an implementation in
which all elements are detached as they are returned from
the model. This would allow users of elements to not
worry about transactions except when detaching and
reattaching (similar to what is done with the editors).

The drawback of this approach is that there can
potentially be two copies of the same object in memory at
one time (the detached copy and the real element). This
could seriously affect performance. However, if we
require callers to return detached objects to the model,
and destroy the detached copy upon return, there will be
far less of a hit. Namely because the number of "active
detached" elements at any one time is going to be a very
small subset. This idea deserved further consideration
before proceeding to implement this FREQ.