/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2007, 2009 Oracle. All rights reserved.
 * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
 * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0, which accompanies this distribution
 * and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html.
 * 
 * Contributors:
 *     Oracle - initial API and implementation
 ******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jpt.core.resource.java;

/**
 * Interface for dealing with annotations that can be "nested" within other
 * annotations, typically within arrays.
 * 
 * Provisional API: This interface is part of an interim API that is still
 * under development and expected to change significantly before reaching
 * stability. It is available at this early stage to solicit feedback from
 * pioneering adopters on the understanding that any code that uses this API
 * will almost certainly be broken (repeatedly) as the API evolves.
 */
public interface NestableAnnotation
	extends Annotation
{
	// currently using this when the NestableAnnotation is moved from
	// stand-alone to nested or from nested to stand-alone;
	// not the greatest, since you have to make sure to call all setter methods
	void initializeFrom(NestableAnnotation oldAnnotation);

	/**
	 * Move the annotation to the specified index within its container annotation.
	 * This should only be called when the annotation is actually nested.
	 */
	void moveAnnotation(int index);

}