/*
* Created on Sep 21, 2004 Copyright (C) 2001-4, Anthony Harrison anh23@pitt.edu
* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
* the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
* Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option)
* any later version. This library 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 Lesser
* General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of
* the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not, write
* to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
* 02111-1307 USA
*/
package org.jactr.core.slot;
/**
* basic slot definition. slots are just key-value pairs that can be matched
* against, or conditionalized.
*/
public interface ISlot extends Cloneable
{
static public final String ISA = ":isa";
/**
* the name of the slot
* @return
*/
public String getName();
/**
* slots may contain variables, which are currently hardcoded
* as strings starting with '='
* @return
* @see
*/
@Deprecated
public boolean isVariable();
/**
* does the value of the slot represent an unresolved variable?
* @return
*/
public boolean isVariableValue();
/**
* return the value of the slot. if the slot is a variable, this
* returns the string name of the variable
* @return may be null
*/
public Object getValue();
/**
*
*/
public boolean equalValues(Object value);
public ISlot clone();
}