Defender-methods: A chance to finally retrofit Cloneable with clone method?

[Gernot Neppert]

Am 08.08.2011 20:07, schrieb Joe Darcy:
> Hello.
>
> There is a long, sad story behind why Cloneable is only a marker
> interface; IIRC, at least some of that story is recounted in "Effective
> Java."

All that I ever read about the history of Cloneable said it was a 
mistake not to include the clone() method in the interface and that it 
could not be retrofitted compatibly.
(See, for example, the bug: 
http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4098033)

Well, now (with defender methods) we can retrofit it!


> In any case, I do not expect defenders to be used to retrofit a clone
> method to Cloneable.
>

I don't get the intention of that sentence. Do you expect other means to 
be used to retrofit a clone method?
Or do you not expect Cloneable ever to be fixed? Or is it a hint about 
what you would endorse or not endorse?