Apr
24
Cloning generators
Python doesn't have a way to clone generators.
At least for a lot of simple cases, however, it's pretty obvious what cloning them should do, and being able to do so would be handy. But for a lot of other cases, it's not at all obvious.
For example, if the generator is using another iterator (one which isn't a generator itself; otherwise the answer would be obvious), like a file, what should happen when you clone it? Does it share the same file iterator? Or get a new iterator that references the same file handle under the covers? Or one that references a dup of the file handle?
So, let's look at what it would take to clone a generator, and what the choices are, and how you'd implement them.
At least for a lot of simple cases, however, it's pretty obvious what cloning them should do, and being able to do so would be handy. But for a lot of other cases, it's not at all obvious.
For example, if the generator is using another iterator (one which isn't a generator itself; otherwise the answer would be obvious), like a file, what should happen when you clone it? Does it share the same file iterator? Or get a new iterator that references the same file handle under the covers? Or one that references a dup of the file handle?
So, let's look at what it would take to clone a generator, and what the choices are, and how you'd implement them.
