REBOL 3.0

MAKE object! - to copy or not to copy

Carl Sassenrath, CTO
REBOL Technologies
23-Jun-2009 4:18 GMT

Article #0212
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I just noticed a comment in CureCode #802 from Maxim that deserves serious discussion.

Well, surprise! In R3 Alpha we've been deep copying object sub-series everywhere. This was got implemented early on - an experiment that wasn't openly discussed.

Frankly, I was waiting for someone to make some noise, sound the alarm. (It is still alpha.)

Maxim points out:

"This decision is so fundamental that it deserves to be addressed differently. There is need for deep copying objects, I can see some places where this would be useful, but there are also times when this is very evil."

"Data sharing is an integral part of a well designed system. What you propose feels like dumbing down REBOL."

Actually, it has not been proposed. It just "happened" long ago, and I'm not attached to it.

If we want to change this, we must do it very soon. The change is minor in REBOL, but has major impact on programs. (E.g. will break the current GUI demo, but we can fix that.)

With the binary any-string change also this week, I can see we're going to be very busy. Better plan to take your laptop with you on vacation to the south of France next week.

Come to think of it... that's the best place to make such a decision. Maybe we should all meet there for a mini-devcon? N'est-ce pas?

18 Comments

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