org.eclipse.jface.text/src/org/eclipse/jface/text/reconciler/IReconciler.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2004 IBM Corporation and others.
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials 
 * are made available under the terms of the Common Public License v1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/cpl-v10.html
 * 
 * Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler;

import org.eclipse.jface.text.ITextViewer;


/**
 * An <code>IReconciler</code> defines and maintains a model of the content
 * of the text  viewer's document in the presence of changes applied to this 
 * document. An <code>IReconciler</code> is a {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.ITextViewer} add-on.
 * <p>
 * Reconcilers are assumed to be asynchronous, i.e. they allow a certain 
 * temporal window of inconsistency between the document and the model of
 * the content of this document.
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * Reconcilers have a list of {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler.IReconcilingStrategy} 
 * objects each of which is registered for a  particular document content type.
 * The reconciler uses the strategy objects to react on the changes applied
 * to the text viewer's document.
 *</p>
 * <p>
 * In order to provide backward compatibility for clients of <code>IReconciler</code>, extension
 * interfaces are used to provide a means of evolution. The following extension interfaces exist:
 * <ul>
 * <li>{@link org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler.IReconcilerExtension} since version 3.0 introducing 
 *		the ability to be aware of documents with multiple partitions.</li>
 * </ul>
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * The interface can be implemented by clients. By default, clients use
 * {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler.Reconciler} as the standard
 * implementer of this interface. 
 * </p>
 *
 * @see ITextViewer
 * @see IReconcilingStrategy 
 */
public interface IReconciler {
		
	/**
	 * Installs the reconciler on the given text viewer. After this method has been
	 * finished, the reconciler is operational, i.e., it works without requesting 
	 * further client actions until <code>uninstall</code> is called.
	 * 
	 * @param textViewer the viewer on which the reconciler is installed
	 */
	void install(ITextViewer textViewer);
	
	/**
	 * Removes the reconciler from the text viewer it has 
	 * previously been installed on. 
	 */
	void uninstall();
	
	/**
	 * Returns the reconciling strategy registered with the reconciler
	 * for the specified content type.
	 *
	 * @param contentType the content type for which to determine the reconciling strategy
	 * @return the reconciling strategy registered for the given content type, or
	 *		<code>null</code> if there is no such strategy
	 */
	IReconcilingStrategy getReconcilingStrategy(String contentType);
}