/*
 Copyright (c) 2006 - 2008  Eric J. Feminella  <eric@ericfeminella.com>
 All rights reserved.

 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished
 to do so, subject to the following conditions:

 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
 copies or substantial portions of the Software.

 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
 INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
 PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
 HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
 OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
 SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

 @internal
 */

package com.ericfeminella.utils
{
    import flash.utils.ByteArray;

    /**
     * 
     * All static class which defines a single static method which 
     * provides a mechanism for creating a Deep Copy of a reference 
     * object to a new memory address
     * 
     * @see flash.utils.ByteArray;
     * 
     */
    public final class DeepCopy
    {
        /**
         * 
         * Creates a deep copy (clone) of a reference object to a new 
         * memory address
         *
         * @param   reference object in which to clone
         * @return  a clone of the original reference object
         * 
         */
        public static function clone(reference:*) : Object
        {
            var clone:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
            clone.writeObject( reference );
            clone.position = 0;

            return clone.readObject();
        }
    }
}