Channel.java

/*
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.jctools.channels;

/**
 * A minimal top level queue interface which allows producer/consumers access via separate interfaces.
 *
 * Channels may determine their capacity themselves with additional slack or resize themselves as powers of two etc.
 * Consequently instead of having a definite concept of a "capacity" channels have a requested capacity and a maximum
 * capacity. The requested capacity is the capacity requested when you create the channel and the maximum capacity is the
 * size that the channel has resized itself up to.
 *
 * @param <E> element type
 */
public interface Channel<E> {

    /**
     * @param callback the accept function for this consumer
     * @return a consumer instance to be used for this particular thread.
     */
    ChannelConsumer consumer(ChannelReceiver<E> callback);
    
    /**
     * @return a producer instance to be used for this particular thread.
     */
    ChannelProducer<E> producer();

    /**
     * Get the number of elements in the queue.
     * 
     * @return the number of elements in the queue.
     */
    int size();

    /**
     * @return the maximum number of elements that can fit in this channel.
     */
    int maximumCapacity();

    /**
     * @return The requested maximum number of elements that can fit in this channel.
     */
    int requestedCapacity();

    boolean isEmpty();

}