package org.apache.samoa.moa;

/*
 * #%L
 * SAMOA
 * %%
 * Copyright (C) 2014 - 2015 Apache Software Foundation
 * %%
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 * #L%
 */

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * Interface implemented by classes in MOA, so that all are serializable, can produce copies of their objects, and can
 * measure its memory size. They also give a string description.
 * 
 * @author Richard Kirkby (rkirkby@cs.waikato.ac.nz)
 * @version $Revision: 7 $
 */
public interface MOAObject extends Serializable {

  /**
   * Gets the memory size of this object.
   * 
   * @return the memory size of this object
   */
  public int measureByteSize();

  /**
   * This method produces a copy of this object.
   * 
   * @return a copy of this object
   */
  public MOAObject copy();

  /**
   * Returns a string representation of this object. Used in <code>AbstractMOAObject.toString</code> to give a string
   * representation of the object.
   * 
   * @param sb
   *          the stringbuilder to add the description
   * @param indent
   *          the number of characters to indent
   */
  public void getDescription(StringBuilder sb, int indent);
}