/*
* `gnu.iou'
* Copyright (C) 2006 John Pritchard.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
* the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
* 02111-1307 USA
*/
package gnu.iou ;
/**
* A clone helper function for objects that would not be cloned when a
* container is cloneing itself, but necessarily need to be cloned in
* every case in order to preserve essential semantics for multiple
* users.
*
* <p> For example, "file" does not implement "copy" as the streams it
* returns from its API are never shared -- so "to clone or not" is
* left to the discretion of the clone implementor, while "urlc" which
* maintains stateful connection streams necessarily does need to be
* copied in every case.
*
* @author John Pritchard (john@syntelos.org)
*/
public interface copy extends Cloneable {
public Object copy();
}