/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2008 IBM Corporation and others.
 *
 * This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
 *
 * 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:
 * </p>
 * <ul>
 * <li>{@link org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler.IReconcilerExtension} since version 3.0 introducing
 * the ability to be aware of documents with multiple partitionings.</li>
 * </ul>
 * <p>
 * The interface can be implemented by clients. By default, clients use
 * {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler.MonoReconciler} or
 * {@link org.eclipse.jface.text.reconciler.Reconciler} as the standard implementers 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);
}
