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 * @author  Tomáš Müller
022 * @version IFS 1.3 (Iterative Forward Search)<br>
023 *          Copyright (C) 2014 Tomáš Müller<br>
024 *          <a href="mailto:muller@unitime.org">muller@unitime.org</a><br>
025 *          <a href="http://muller.unitime.org">http://muller.unitime.org</a><br>
026 * <br>
027 *          This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
028 *          it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
029 *          published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the
030 *          License, or (at your option) any later version. <br>
031 * <br>
032 *          This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
033 *          WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
034 *          MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
035 *          Lesser General Public License for more details. <br>
036 * <br>
037 *          You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
038 *          License along with this library; if not see <a href='http://www.gnu.org/licenses'>http://www.gnu.org/licenses</a>.
039 * @param <V> Variable
040 * @param <T> Value
041 * @param <C> Assignment Context
042 **/
043public interface CanInheritContext <V extends Variable<V, T>, T extends Value<V, T>, C extends AssignmentContext> {
044    
045    /**
046     * Create a new assignment context for the given assignment. This method can be used to
047     * clone the parent context if desired.
048     * @param assignment an assignment for which there needs to be an assignment context
049     * @param parentContext context of the parent assignment
050     * @return a new instance of the assignment context, filled according to the given assignment
051     */
052    public C inheritAssignmentContext(Assignment<V,T> assignment, C parentContext);
053
054}