package org.jactr.core.production.request;
/*
* default logging
*/
import org.jactr.core.model.IModel;
import org.jactr.core.production.VariableBindings;
import org.jactr.core.production.condition.CannotMatchException;
/**
* basic foundation of a module request. Request can be cloned and then
* bound and resolved against a variable mapping.
* @author harrison
*
*/
public interface IRequest extends Cloneable
{
/**
* duplicate this IRequest so that the clone can
* be resolved against since the process is destructive
*
* @return deep copy
*/
public IRequest clone();
/**
* attempt to resolve and bind any variables within this
* request. This method can be called iteratively and is permitted
* to make perminent changes to the request since this should be a clone (or
* transient). <br>
* bind will attempt to resolve and bind any variables it contains against
* those in the bindings. If it has any unresolved bindings and this is an
* iterative call, it can return the unresolved count. If it is not an iterativeCall,
* it cannot match and the exception is thrown.<br>
* If the request determines that it cannot match at anytime, it should throw
* the cannot match exception.
*
* @param bindings
* @param iterativeCall
* @return number of unresolved variables in this request
* @throws CannotMatchException
*/
public int bind(IModel model, VariableBindings bindings, boolean iterativeCall) throws CannotMatchException;
}