> I've been thinking about this for a while and I simply can't find a 
> reason why it is not possible to copy a CSG object in the same, memory 
> saving way you can copy meshes.
> My knowledge of the POV sources is very limited, so please correct me if 
> I'm wrong, but IMHO copies of the same mesh are simply references to the 
> same internal dataset, i.e. pointers, and additional data like 
> transformations. Why can't the same technique be applied to CSG objects 
> as well? Is this a general, algorithmic problem or is the way things are 
> handled in the POV-Ray sources the reason for this?

HISTORY is your one-word answer.
CSG were implemented far before mesh even become available.
Moreover, mesh was perceived as a huge memory-filler, and was therefore 
optimised (because, at that time, even 4 megabytes of memory could have 
been luxury), whereas CSG is usually feeled like a simple (and short) tree.
(a CSG operation, a sphere and a plane, that's short!)





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