[question]should the borg design pattern override __deepcopy__() ?

[sak96]

• borg as i see it is equivalent of singleton for python
• but it does not handle deepcopy very well
• shouldn't there be a __deepcopy__ method?
• correct me if i am wrong

[gyermolenko]

hi @sak96
You are correct in notion that Borg does not handle deepcopy very well. Neither it does for shallow copy (copy.copy(..)).
But I don't think its his responsibility.

1. "the singleton pattern is a software design pattern that restricts the instantiation of a class to one." (link)
2. You can work around that: In order for a class to define its own copy implementation, it can define special methods __copy__() and __deepcopy__(). (link)

So I would say "not a bug". What do you think?

[sak96]

yes. I agree.
After reading more about data structure I would say sometime deep copy or copy may not be necessary. it is more to understand the essence of the pattern. back then when I had just started I felt that this was something which was worth thinking about. but now I look back and feel that most of the time you have to tweak a little bit for a pattern to be helpful.
Any how thanks for resolving my query.

[gyermolenko]

great!
"but now I look back and feel that most of the time you have to tweak a little bit for a pattern to be helpful" - well said. Fits my experience as well.