Can generic list utilities use Vectors (AS3)? - arrays

Question

Using Object or * as a type for a Vector doesn't provide generic functionality (like List in Java). Witness:
public static function someGenericVectorUtil (value:Vector.<*>) :void {
// do stuff to/with the Vector
}
var someVector:Vector.<Number>;
someGenericVectorUtil(someVector); // compile-time implicit coercion error
So, perhaps we redefine the utility method to accept an Array. But there's no easy way to convert Vectors going into the utility to Arrays, nor an easy way to pack them back in afterwards, resulting in code like this:
public static function someGenericArrayUtil (value:Array) :void {
// do stuff to/with the formerly-known-as-Vector
}
var someVector:Vector.<Number>;
var tempArray:Array = new Array(someVector.length);
for (var i:uint=0; i<someVector.length; i++) {
tempArray[i] = someVector[i];
}
someGenericVectorUtil(tempArray);
someVector = Vector.<Number>([tempArray]);
Needless to say, that's pretty hideous. Okay, so let's move the Vector-Array-Vector nonsense into a utility:
public static function vectorToArray (Vector.<*>) :Array {
// oh wait....that Vector.<*> param is useless,
// as demonstrated earlier.
}
Any way to straighten out this mess? Or should I just stop using Vectors when I think I might need to run them through generic utilities? (Obviously, also not really much of an option...)

Answer 1

public static function someGenericVectorUtil (value:Vector.<*>) :void {
// do stuff to/with the Vector
}
var someVector:Vector.<Number>;
someGenericVectorUtil(Vector.<*>(someVector));
^ it works. Also try with Array.

Answer 2

This is not an answer but more a long comment to #Lukasz's answer.
The problem with his answer is that you're actually creating a new Vector, so you need to return the Vector from someGenericVectorUtil and re-cast it. E.g. try:
var v:Vector.<int> = Vector.<int>([1,2,3]);
trace( v == Vector.<int>( Vector.<*>( v ) ) ); // traces false
That code just creates a simple Vector of ints, then compares it with a version of itself casted (first to *, then back to int). If you trace the Vectors out, they'll trace identical, but the actual Vectors references themselves aren't the same object. Thus if you have a utility function that modifies the Vector (e.g. a shuffle or randomise function), nothing will change.
E.g:
var v:Vector.<int> = Vector.<int>([1,2,3]);
trace( v ); // traces "1,2,3"
// shuffle() randomises the elements in a vector - this first call won't work
// as the cast creates a new vector
VectorUtil.shuffle( Vector.<*>( v ) );
trace( v ); // traces "1,2,3"
// we need to recast it back, and change shuffle() to return the vector
v = Vector.<int>( VectorUtil.shuffle( Vector.<*>( v ) ) );
trace( v ); // traces "3,1,2"
As you can see, it starts to get a bit ugly towards the end, and if you're keeping track of the Vector anywhere else, you'll need to update the references, but it's the only solution that I've found so far :S