/**
* Provides implementation-independent means for creating new Gene instances. The new instance
* that is created and returned should be setup with any implementation-dependent configuration
* that this Gene instance is setup with (aside from the actual value, of course). For example, if
* this Gene were setup with bounds on its value, then the Gene instance returned from this method
* should also be setup with those same bounds. This is important, as the JGAP core will invoke
* this method on each Gene in the sample Chromosome in order to create each new Gene in the same
* respective gene position for a new Chromosome.
*
* @return a new Gene instance of the same type and with the same setup as this concrete Gene
* @author Neil Rostan
* @author Klaus Meffert
* @since 2.6 (since 1.0 in IntegerGene)
*/
public Gene newGene() {
Gene result = newGeneInternal();
result.setConstraintChecker(getConstraintChecker());
result.setEnergy(getEnergy());
/** @todo clone app.data */
result.setApplicationData(getApplicationData());
return result;
}
/**
* Compares this Gene with the given object and returns true if the other object is a Gene of the
* same type and has the same value (allele) as this Gene. Otherwise it returns false.
*
* @param a_other the object to compare to this Gene for equality
* @return true if this Gene is equal to the given object, false otherwise
* @author Klaus Meffert
* @since 1.1
*/
public boolean equals(final Object a_other) {
try {
int result = compareTo(a_other);
if (result == 0) {
if (isCompareApplicationData()) {
Gene otherGene = (Gene) a_other;
int resultAppData =
compareApplicationData(getApplicationData(), otherGene.getApplicationData());
return resultAppData == 0;
} else {
return true;
}
} else {
return false;
}
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
// If the other object isn't an Gene of current type
// (like IntegerGene for IntegerGene's), then we're not equal.
// -----------------------------------------------------------
return false;
}
}