Feature #8494
open
Safe method for defensive copies. alternative to 'dup'
Description
As a developer
I want a simple method that will return a "safe" version of my object
So I can make defensive copies easily and safely
This is related to issue 1844: http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/3650325
I have tried using 'dup' to make defensive copies, but 'dup' throws an exception when used on a Fixnum and the like, because these values aren't copyable.
I tried to throw a "respond_to?" around the call, but that didn't work, since these classes still technically respond to 'dup'.
It looks like there's an extension method to do this (http://ruby-doc.org/gems/docs/c/core_ex-0.6.6.3/CoreEx/TryDup.html), but I don't see why this isn't in the core language. It seems like a common enough use case.
As far as naming, 'dup' is really just the means to an end. A more meaningful name would be something like 'defensive', or 'safe'. Although 'try_dup' like the extension method would also work.
Any chance of something like this making it in to Ruby core?
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