001package org.cpsolver.ifs.assignment.context;
002
003import org.cpsolver.ifs.assignment.Assignment;
004import org.cpsolver.ifs.assignment.InheritedAssignment;
005import org.cpsolver.ifs.model.Value;
006import org.cpsolver.ifs.model.Variable;
007
008/**
009 * An additional interface that can be implemented by the {@link HasAssignmentContext} class.
010 * The inherited assignment context holder (see {@link InheritedAssignmentContextHolder}) can
011 * than use this interface to inherit an assignment context from the parent assignment context.
012 * If a {@link HasAssignmentContext} class implements this interface, {@link InheritedAssignment}
013 * will use the {@link CanInheritContext#inheritAssignmentContext(Assignment, AssignmentContext)} method 
014 * instead of the {@link HasAssignmentContext#createAssignmentContext(Assignment)} method to create
015 * a new context.   
016 * 
017 * @see HasAssignmentContext
018 * @see InheritedAssignment
019 * @see InheritedAssignmentContextHolder
020 * 
021 * @version IFS 1.3 (Iterative Forward Search)<br>
022 *          Copyright (C) 2014 Tomáš Müller<br>
023 *          <a href="mailto:muller@unitime.org">muller@unitime.org</a><br>
024 *          <a href="http://muller.unitime.org">http://muller.unitime.org</a><br>
025 * <br>
026 *          This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
027 *          it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
028 *          published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the
029 *          License, or (at your option) any later version. <br>
030 * <br>
031 *          This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
032 *          WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
033 *          MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
034 *          Lesser General Public License for more details. <br>
035 * <br>
036 *          You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
037 *          License along with this library; if not see <a href='http://www.gnu.org/licenses'>http://www.gnu.org/licenses</a>.
038 * @param <V> Variable
039 * @param <T> Value
040 * @param <C> Assignment Context
041 **/
042public interface CanInheritContext <V extends Variable<V, T>, T extends Value<V, T>, C extends AssignmentContext> {
043    
044    /**
045     * Create a new assignment context for the given assignment. This method can be used to
046     * clone the parent context if desired.
047     * @param assignment an assignment for which there needs to be an assignment context
048     * @param parentContext context of the parent assignment
049     * @return a new instance of the assignment context, filled according to the given assignment
050     */
051    public C inheritAssignmentContext(Assignment<V,T> assignment, C parentContext);
052
053}