Copyable.java

/*
 *   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 3 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, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */

/*
 *    Copyable.java
 *    Copyright (C) 1999-2012 University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
 *
 */

package weka.core;

/**
 * Interface implemented by classes that can produce "shallow" copies
 * of their objects. (As opposed to clone(), which is supposed to
 * produce a "deep" copy.)
 *
 * @author Eibe Frank (eibe@cs.waikato.ac.nz)
 * @version $Revision: 8034 $
 */
public interface Copyable {

  /**
   * This method produces a shallow copy of an object.
   * It does the same as the clone() method in Object, which also produces
   * a shallow copy.
   */
  Object copy();
}