class Object
  # Get or set state of object. You can think of #object_state as an in-code
  # form of marshalling.
  #
  #   class StateExample
  #     attr_reader :a, :b
  #     def initialize(a,b)
  #       @a, @b = a, b
  #     end
  #   end
  #
  #   obj = StateExample.new(1,2)
  #   obj.a  #=> 1
  #   obj.b  #=> 2
  #
  #   obj.object_state  #=> {:a=>1, :b=>2}
  #
  #   obj.object_state(:a=>3, :b=>4)
  #   obj.a  #=> 3
  #   obj.b  #=> 4
  #
  # For most object's this is essentially the same as <code>instance.to_h</code>.
  # But for data structures like Array and Hash it returns a snapshot of their
  # contents, not the state of their instance variables.
  #--
  # TODO: Should this be in module Kernel ?
  #++
  def object_state(data=nil)
    if data
      instance_variables.each do |iv|
        name = iv.to_s.sub(/^[@]/, '').to_sym
        instance_variable_set(iv, data[name])
      end
    else
      data = {}
      instance_variables.each do |iv|
        name = iv.to_s.sub(/^[@]/, '').to_sym
        data[name] = instance_variable_get(iv)
      end
      data
    end
  end
end

class Array
  #
  def object_state(data=nil)
    data ? replace(data) : dup
  end
end

class String
  #
  def object_state(data=nil)
    data ? replace(data) : dup
  end
end

class Hash
  #
  def object_state(data=nil)
    data ? replace(data) : dup
  end
end

class Struct
  #
  def object_state(data=nil)
    if data
      data.each_pair {|k,v| send(k.to_s + "=", v)}
    else
      data = {}
      each_pair{|k,v| data[k] = v}
      data
    end
  end
end