Fix for the fix: Fix an error if a user forcefully reads after the

[deliverable/tracecompass.git] / org.eclipse.linuxtools.tmf.core / src / org / eclipse / linuxtools / tmf / core / interval / ITmfStateInterval.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2012 Ericsson
 * 
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are
 * made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which
 * accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 * 
 * Contributors:
 *   Alexandre Montplaisir - Initial API
 ******************************************************************************/

package org.eclipse.linuxtools.tmf.core.interval;

import org.eclipse.linuxtools.tmf.core.statevalue.ITmfStateValue;

/**
 * This is the basic interface for accessing state intervals. See
 * StateInterval.java for a basic implementation.
 * 
 * A StateInterval is meant to be immutable. All implementing (non-abstract)
 * classes should ideally be marked as 'final'.
 * 
 * @author alexmont
 * 
 */
public interface ITmfStateInterval {

    /**
     * Retrieve the start time of the interval
     * 
     * @return the start time of the interval
     */
    public long getStartTime();

    /**
     * Retrieve the end time of the interval
     * 
     * @return the end time of the interval
     */
    public long getEndTime();

    /**
     * In case the "real" end time of the interval is not exactly the same as
     * the end time you want to show in views, you can implement this method to
     * assign a different value that the viewer can use.
     * 
     * If not, you can simply have it return the same as getEndTime().
     * 
     * @return The end time that views should use
     */
    public long getViewerEndTime();

    /**
     * Retrieve the quark of the attribute this state interval refers to
     * 
     * @return the quark of the attribute this state interval refers to
     */
    public int getAttribute();

    /**
     * Retrieve the state value represented by this interval
     * 
     * @return the state value represented by this interval
     */
    public ITmfStateValue getStateValue();

    /**
     * Test if this interval intersects another timestamp, inclusively.
     * 
     * @param timestamp
     *            The target timestamp
     * @return True if the interval and timestamp intersect, false if they don't
     */
    public boolean intersects(long timestamp);
}