/*
 * Copyright 1995-1999 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 java.net;

/**
 * This interface defines a factory for socket implementations. It
 * is used by the classes <code>Socket</code> and
 * <code>ServerSocket</code> to create actual socket
 * implementations.
 *
 * @author  Arthur van Hoff
 * @see     java.net.Socket
 * @see     java.net.ServerSocket
 * @since   JDK1.0
 */
public
interface SocketImplFactory {
    /**
     * Creates a new <code>SocketImpl</code> instance.
     *
     * @return  a new instance of <code>SocketImpl</code>.
     * @see     java.net.SocketImpl
     */
    SocketImpl createSocketImpl();
}