You have to be very careful of what you mean when you say "deep-copying". This came up in a thread at StackOverflow in relation to C++. The first question you need to address is can an automatic "deep-copy" even be done? Consider just a few basic quesetions:

1. If the type of a data element is a referential type can you determine whether a deep copy implies copying the reference or the referred to type? That is, can you identify the ownership of these items?
2. Does the presence of a singleton, or external resource, prevent a deep copy, or does the copy refer to the same resource?
3. Given that data relations often form graphs with cycles. Could such a relationship automatically be detected? Even if yes, what would if mean to start the deep copy at an inner-node of such a structure?

This is likely why you only find references which are very language specific. Each language has its own notion of copying. This default copy is not likely to match the expected notion of a deep-copy in all situations.

I would say it is not possible to even specify what deep-copy is without explicitly enumerating the types available in a given language. This would essentially require that all research about deep-copying is specific to a particular language (even if that language is theoretical).

If you are looking for efficiency comparisons you would then also be stuck in the domain of a very particular language. You could possible define a reduced compound data type common to several languages and evaluate the efficiency of copying such structures. Such results however would not be applicable to any language with more complex data types.

You have to be very careful of what you mean when you say "deep-copying". This came up in a thread at StackOverflow in relation to C++. The first question you need to address is can an automatic "deep-copy" even be done? Consider just a few basic quesetions:

1. If the type of a data element is a referential type can you determine whether a deep copy implies copying the reference or the referred to type? That is, can you identify the ownership of these items?
2. Does the presence of a singleton, or external resource, prevent a deep copy, or does the copy refer to the same resource?
3. Given that data relations often form graphs with cycles. Could such a relationship automatically be detected? Even if yes, what would if mean to start the deep copy at an inner-node of such a structure?

This is likely why you only find references which are very language specific. Each language has its own notion of copying. This default copy is not likely to match the expected notion of a deep-copy in all situations.

I would say it is not possible to even specify what deep-copy is without explicitly enumerating the types available in a given language. This would essentially require that all research about deep-copying is specific to a particular language (even if that language is theoretical).

If you are looking for efficiency comparisons you would then also be stuck in the domain of a very particular language. You could possible define a reduced compound data type common to several languages and evaluate the efficiency of copying such structures. Such results however would not be applicable to any language with more complex data types.