StateMachine.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright 2014 See AUTHORS file.
 * 
 * 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 com.badlogic.gdx.ai.fsm;

import com.badlogic.gdx.ai.msg.Telegram;
import com.badlogic.gdx.ai.msg.Telegraph;

/** A state machine manages the state transitions of its entity. Additionally, the state machine may be delegated by the entity to
 * handle its messages.
 * 
 * @param <E> the type of the entity owning this state machine
 * @param <S> the type of the states of this state machine
 * 
 * @author davebaol */
public interface StateMachine<E, S extends State<E>> extends Telegraph {

	/** Updates the state machine.
	 * <p>
	 * Implementation classes should invoke first the {@code update} method of the global state (if any) then the {@code update}
	 * method of the current state.
	 * </p> */
	public void update ();

	/** Performs a transition to the specified state.
	 * @param newState the state to transition to */
	public void changeState (S newState);

	/** Changes the state back to the previous state.
	 * @return {@code True} in case there was a previous state that we were able to revert to. In case there is no previous state,
	 *         no state change occurs and {@code false} will be returned. */
	public boolean revertToPreviousState ();

	/** Sets the initial state of this state machine.
	 * @param state the initial state. */
	public void setInitialState (S state);

	/** Sets the global state of this state machine.
	 * @param state the global state. */
	public void setGlobalState (S state);

	/** Returns the current state of this state machine. */
	public S getCurrentState ();

	/** Returns the global state of this state machine.
	 * <p>
	 * Implementation classes should invoke the {@code update} method of the global state every time the FSM is updated. Also, they
	 * should never invoke its {@code enter} and {@code exit} method.
	 * </p> */
	public S getGlobalState ();

	/** Returns the last state of this state machine. */
	public S getPreviousState ();

	/** Indicates whether the state machine is in the given state.
	 * @param state the state to be compared with the current state
	 * @return true if the current state's type is equal to the type of the class passed as a parameter. */
	public boolean isInState (S state);

	/** Handles received telegrams.
	 * <p>
	 * Implementation classes should first route the telegram to the current state. If the current state does not deal with the
	 * message, it should be routed to the global state.
	 * </p>
	 * @param telegram the received telegram
	 * @return true if telegram has been successfully handled; false otherwise. */
	public boolean handleMessage (Telegram telegram);
}