com.varankin.io.container
Interface Automaton<Atom>

Type Parameters:

Atom - elementary object described by syntax.

All Superinterfaces:

Receiver<Atom>

All Known Subinterfaces:

TailedAutomaton<Atom>

public interface Automaton<Atom>
extends Receiver<Atom>

Abstract state machine.

Author:

© 2010 Nikolai Varankine

Field Summary

static int	IDENTICAL Identity value to denote exact match between objects.
static int	IRRELEVANT Identity value to denote no match between objects.

Method Summary

int	identity() Returns identity level of received elementary objects with expectation: IRRELEVANT - objects do not meet expectation.

Methods inherited from interface com.varankin.io.container.Receiver

add

Field Detail

IRRELEVANT

static final int IRRELEVANT

Identity value to denote no match between objects.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

IDENTICAL

static final int IDENTICAL

Identity value to denote exact match between objects.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Method Detail

identity

int identity()

Returns identity level of received elementary objects with expectation:

• IRRELEVANT - objects do not meet expectation.
• IDENTICAL - objects meet expectation exactly.
• any value > IDENTICAL - objects meet expectation with some sense of abstraction; the bigger the value the less identity is observed. Same values returned on different instances of Automaton does not necessarily mean equal grade of identity.

Return value is not guaranteed to be true until Receiver.add(java.lang.Object) returns false.

Returns:

level of identity as nonnegative integer.