/*
 *  RapidMiner
 *
 *  Copyright (C) 2001-2008 by Rapid-I and the contributors
 *
 *  Complete list of developers available at our web site:
 *
 *       http://rapid-i.com
 *
 *  This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *  it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
 *  the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 *  (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *  GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
 *
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
 *  along with this program.  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
 */
package com.rapidminer.tools.math.optimization;

import com.rapidminer.operator.OperatorException;
import com.rapidminer.operator.performance.PerformanceVector;

/**
 * General interface for all optimization methods. The method
 * {@link #optimize()} should be invoked to start the optimization process. The
 * optimal result can be queried by the method {@link #getBestValuesEver()}.
 * The other methods of this interface can be used to support logging or
 * plotting.
 * 
 * @author Ingo Mierswa
 * @version $Id: Optimization.java,v 1.3 2008/05/09 19:23:26 ingomierswa Exp $
 */
public interface Optimization {
    
	/**
	 * Should be invoked to start optimization. Since the optimization can use
	 * other (inner) operators to support fitness evaluation this method is
	 * allowed to throw OperatorExceptions.
	 */
	public void optimize() throws OperatorException;

	/** Returns the current generation. */
	public int getGeneration();

	/** Returns the best fitness in the current generation. */
	public double getBestFitnessInGeneration();

	/** Returns the best fitness ever. */
	public double getBestFitnessEver();

	/** Returns the best performance vector ever. */
	public PerformanceVector getBestPerformanceEver();

	/**
	 * Returns the best values ever. Use this method after optimization to get
	 * the best result.
	 */
	public double[] getBestValuesEver();
}