/*

 * Copyright 1998-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.

 *

 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as

 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this

 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided

 * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.

 *

 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT

 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or

 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License

 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that

 * accompanied this code).

 *

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version

 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

 *

 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,

 * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or

 * have any questions.

 */

package com.sun.jdi;

/**

 * A proxy used by a debugger to examine or manipulate some entity

 * in another virtual machine. Mirror is the root of the

 * interface hierarchy for this package. Mirrors can be proxies for objects

 * in the target VM ({@link ObjectReference}), primitive values

 * (for example, {@link IntegerValue}), types (for example,

 * {@link ReferenceType}), dynamic application state (for example,

 * {@link StackFrame}), and even debugger-specific constructs (for example,

 * {@link com.sun.jdi.request.BreakpointRequest}).

 * The {@link VirtualMachine} itself is also

 * considered a mirror, representing the composite state of the

 * target VM.

 * <P>

 * There is no guarantee that a particular entity in the target VM will map

 * to a single instance of Mirror. Implementors are free to decide

 * whether a single mirror will be used for some or all mirrors. Clients

 * of this interface should always use <code>equals</code> to compare

 * two mirrors for equality.

 * <p>

 * Any method on a {@link com.sun.jdi.Mirror} that takes a <code>Mirror</code> as an

 * parameter directly or indirectly (e.g., as a element in a <code>List</code>) will

 * throw {@link com.sun.jdi.VMMismatchException} if the mirrors are from different

 * virtual machines.

 *

 * @see VirtualMachine

 *

 * @author Robert Field

 * @author Gordon Hirsch

 * @author James McIlree

 * @since  1.3

 */

public interface Mirror {

    /**

     * Gets the VirtualMachine to which this

     * Mirror belongs. A Mirror must be associated

     * with a VirtualMachine to have any meaning.

     *

     * @return the {@link VirtualMachine} for which this mirror is a proxy.

     */

    VirtualMachine virtualMachine();

    /**

     * Returns a String describing this mirror

     *

     * @return a string describing this mirror.

     */

    String toString();

}