/* Copyright (c) 2008-2010, developers of the Ascension Log Visualizer
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
* obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
* files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
* restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
* copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
* sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom
* the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
* conditions:
*
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
* included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
*
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
* OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
* NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
* HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
* WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
* FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
* OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
*/
package com.googlecode.logVisualizer.util;
/**
* Every object implementing this interface has to have an value of amount to it
* and it has be comparable to other instances of this interface using
* {@link #getComparator()}, while the comparison should not have anything to do
* with the amount of this object.
* <p>
* For the most part, this interface is merely a means to use the class
* {@link CountableSet} so refer to that class for deciding whether you want to
* use this interface or not.
*
* @see CountableSet
*/
public interface Countable<T extends Countable<?>> extends Comparable<T> {
/**
* @param amount
* The amount to set.
*/
public void setAmount(int amount);
/**
* @return The amount.
*/
public int getAmount();
/**
* @return The object used for comparing two different Countable instances.
*/
public Comparable<?> getComparator();
/**
* Merges the given Countable instance with this Countable instance. The
* given Countable instance is not altered by this method.
* <p>
* Note that the object returned by {@link #getComparator()} before a merge
* must be equal to the object returned afterwards.
*
* @param c
* The Countable instance to be merged.
*/
public void merge(T t);
/**
* @return A deep copy of this Countable instance.
*/
public T newInstance();
}