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authorFred Drake <fdrake@acm.org>1998-11-30 18:59:44 (GMT)
committerFred Drake <fdrake@acm.org>1998-11-30 18:59:44 (GMT)
commit3d29955a6e97727076d290b6449ff856584f5570 (patch)
treeebd7348bf4651c09044e5f51a989d6f82fa53798
parent01d5d94020fe2d8c828f9b65c1e985c0734dbd97 (diff)
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Markup improvements to help with conversions.
-rw-r--r--Doc/lib/libcopy.tex60
1 files changed, 33 insertions, 27 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libcopy.tex b/Doc/lib/libcopy.tex
index 14e667e..14adbb9 100644
--- a/Doc/lib/libcopy.tex
+++ b/Doc/lib/libcopy.tex
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@
\modulesynopsis{Shallow and deep copy operations.}
-\setindexsubitem{(copy function)}
-\ttindex{copy}
-\ttindex{deepcopy}
+\withsubitem{(in module copy)}{%
+ \ttindex{copy}%
+ \ttindex{deepcopy}}
This module provides generic (shallow and deep) copying operations.
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ x = copy.copy(y) # make a shallow copy of y
x = copy.deepcopy(y) # make a deep copy of y
\end{verbatim}
%
-For module specific errors, \code{copy.error} is raised.
+For module specific errors, \exception{copy.error} is raised.
The difference between shallow and deep copying is only relevant for
compound objects (objects that contain other objects, like lists or
@@ -49,13 +49,13 @@ Recursive objects (compound objects that, directly or indirectly,
contain a reference to themselves) may cause a recursive loop.
\item
-Because deep copy copies \emph{everything} it may copy too much, e.g.\
-administrative data structures that should be shared even between
-copies.
+Because deep copy copies \emph{everything} it may copy too much,
+e.g., administrative data structures that should be shared even
+between copies.
\end{itemize}
-Python's \code{deepcopy()} operation avoids these problems by:
+The \function{deepcopy()} function avoids these problems by:
\begin{itemize}
@@ -75,24 +75,30 @@ any similar types.
Classes can use the same interfaces to control copying that they use
to control pickling: they can define methods called
-\code{__getinitargs__()}, \code{__getstate__()} and
-\code{__setstate__()}. See the description of module \code{pickle}
-for information on these methods.
-The copy module does not use the \module{copy_reg} registration
-module.
-\refstmodindex{pickle}
-\setindexsubitem{(copy protocol)}
-\ttindex{__getinitargs__}
-\ttindex{__getstate__}
-\ttindex{__setstate__}
+\method{__getinitargs__()}, \method{__getstate__()} and
+\method{__setstate__()}. See the description of module
+\module{pickle}\refstmodindex{pickle} for information on these
+methods. The \module{copy} module does not use the \module{copy_reg}
+registration module.
+\withsubitem{(copy protocol)}{%
+ \ttindex{__getinitargs__()}%
+ \ttindex{__getstate__()}%
+ \ttindex{__setstate__()}}
In order for a class to define its own copy implementation, it can
-define special methods \method{__copy__()}\ttindex{__copy__} and
-\method{__deepcopy__()}\ttindex{__deepcopy__}. The former is called to
-implement the shallow copy operation; no additional arguments are
-passed. The latter is called to implement the deep copy operation; it
-is passed one argument, the memo dictionary. If the
-\method{__deepcopy__()} implementation needs to make a deep copy of a
-component, it should call the \function{deepcopy()} function with the
-component as first argument and the memo dictionary as second
-argument.
+define special methods \method{__copy__()} and
+\method{__deepcopy__()}. The former is called to implement the
+shallow copy operation; no additional arguments are passed. The
+latter is called to implement the deep copy operation; it is passed
+one argument, the memo dictionary. If the \method{__deepcopy__()}
+implementation needs to make a deep copy of a component, it should
+call the \function{deepcopy()} function with the component as first
+argument and the memo dictionary as second argument.
+\withsubitem{(copy protocol)}{%
+ \ttindex{__copy__()}%
+ \ttindex{__deepcopy__()}}
+
+\begin{seealso}
+\seemodule{pickle}{Discussion of the special disciplines used to
+support object state retrieval and restoration.}
+\end{seealso}