[Zope-dev] Shallow copies/links/references

[Michael R. Bernstein]

On 07 Aug 2001 19:04:42 +0100, Mario Valente wrote:
> 
>   OK everyone, I've managed to get object links to work.
> 
>   As discussed previously by others (re: object references) and
>  asked by myself: I had the need to be able to refer to objects
>  from different points of the folder hierarchy without duplicating
>  those objects.
> 
>   The idea is to have a folder with differente widgets/components
>  and to be able to copy and paste references to those widgets
>  throughout the folder hierarchy. Of course that the usual copy/paste
>  is not OK, since that *duplicates* the objects and as such further
>  changes to the original object wont be reflected in the copies.
>
>  [snip details]
>
>   It works. It does what I want/need. When you change a reference, 
>   the 
>   original also changes. When you change the original, the references
>   change.
>   You can delete either the reference or the original and all is OK.

This looks useful, but I have some questions:

- Acquisition works according to a 'containment before context' rule.
The object that has been 'cloned' here arguably now has two
containments. Which one gets used?

- If I set a proxy role on the cloned object, does it get the same proxy
role in it's original container?

- What does PARENTS evaluate to?

- If the clone is in a location where it wouldn't be able to acquire
something, but the original is, can the clone still acquire that
something?

Thanks,

Michael Bernstein.