// Reference.java
// (C) 2009 by Michael Peter Christen; mc@yacy.net, Frankfurt a. M., Germany
// first published 03.04.2009 on http://yacy.net
//
// This is a part of YaCy, a peer-to-peer based web search engine
//
// $LastChangedDate: 2009-10-10 01:32:08 +0200 (Sa, 10 Okt 2009) $
// $LastChangedRevision: 6393 $
// $LastChangedBy: orbiter $
//
// LICENSE
// 
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program 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 for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

package net.yacy.kelondro.rwi;

import java.util.Collection;

import net.yacy.kelondro.index.Row.Entry;

public interface Reference {

    public String toPropertyForm();
    
    public Entry toKelondroEntry();

    public byte[] metadataHash();

    public long lastModified();
    
    public String toString();
 
    public boolean isOlder(Reference other);

    public int hashCode();
    
    public boolean equals(Object other);

    public void join(final Reference oe);
    
    public Collection<Integer> positions();
    
    public int maxposition();
    
    public int minposition();
    
    public int distance();
        
}