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

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

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/*

 * This file is available under and governed by the GNU General Public

 * License version 2 only, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

 * However, the following notice accompanied the original version of this

 * file, and Oracle licenses the original version of this file under the BSD

 * license:

 */

/*

   Copyright 2009-2013 Attila Szegedi

   Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without

   modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are

   met:

   * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright

     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

   * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright

     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the

     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

   * Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of

     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from

     this software without specific prior written permission.

   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS

   IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED

   TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A

   PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL COPYRIGHT HOLDER

   BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR

   CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF

   SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR

   BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,

   WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR

   OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF

   ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

*/

package jdk.dynalink.linker;

/**

 * Optional interface to be implemented by {@link GuardingTypeConverterFactory}

 * implementers. Language-specific conversions can cause increased overloaded

 * method resolution ambiguity, as many methods can become applicable because of

 * additional conversions. The static way of selecting the "most specific"

 * method will fail more often, because there will be multiple maximally

 * specific method with unrelated signatures. In these cases, language runtimes

 * can be asked to resolve the ambiguity by expressing preferences for one

 * conversion over the other.

 */

public interface ConversionComparator {

    /**

     * Enumeration of possible outcomes of comparing one conversion to another.

     */

    enum Comparison {

        /** The conversions cannot be compared. **/

        INDETERMINATE,

        /** The first conversion is better than the second one. **/

        TYPE_1_BETTER,

        /** The second conversion is better than the first one. **/

        TYPE_2_BETTER,

    }

    /**

     * Determines which of the two target types is the preferred conversion

     * target from a source type.

     * @param sourceType the source type.

     * @param targetType1 one potential target type

     * @param targetType2 another potential target type.

     * @return one of Comparison constants that establish which - if any - of

     * the target types is preferred for the conversion.

     */

    public Comparison compareConversion(Class<?> sourceType, Class<?> targetType1, Class<?> targetType2);

}