/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2000, 2008 IBM Corporation and others.
* All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
* are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
* which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
* http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
*
* Contributors:
* IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
*******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.core.variables;
/**
* A variable that can be referenced in an expression, which resolves to a string
* value. Variables are referenced in expressions via their name, in the following
* format.
* <pre>
* ${varname} or ${varname:argument}
* </pre>
* <p>
* A variable is identified by its name, and optionally accepts an argument. When an
* argument is present, a colon separates the variable name from its argument.
* </p>
* <p>
* Variables can be contributed by extensions or programmatically. There are two
* kinds of variables.
* <ul>
* <li><code>IValueVariable</code> - variables that have a value (with getter and setter), and
* accept no arguments. The value of this type of variable is resolved at the time
* its value is set via its setter API.</li>
* <li><code>IDynamicVariable</code> - variables whose value is resolved at the time
* a string substitution is performed by a contributed resolver. Dynamic variables
* may accept an argument.</li>
* </ul>
* </p>
* @since 3.0
* @noimplement This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
*/
public interface IStringVariable {
/**
* Returns the name of this variable. A variable is uniquely identified by
* its name.
*
* @return variable name
*/
public String getName();
/**
* Returns a human readable description of this variable, possibly <code>null</code>
*
* @return a description of this variable, or <code>null</code> if none
*/
public String getDescription();
}