001/* Codec.java --
002   Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
003
004This file is part of GNU Classpath.
005
006GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
007it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
008the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
009any later version.
010
011GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
012WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
013MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
014General Public License for more details.
015
016You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
017along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
018Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
01902110-1301 USA.
020
021Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
022making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
023conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
024combination.
025
026As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
027permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
028executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
029modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
030terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
031independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
032module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
033or based on this library.  If you modify this library, you may extend
034this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
035obligated to do so.  If you do not wish to do so, delete this
036exception statement from your version. */
037
038
039package org.omg.IOP;
040
041import org.omg.CORBA.portable.IDLEntity;
042
043/**
044 * <p>
045 * Codec provides means to encode IDL data types into the byte arrays.
046 * Some parts of the CORBA message may contain such abstracted (encapsulated)
047 * byte arrays, holding arbitrary information. The encoding and decoding
048 * operations are defined separately in {@link CodecOperations}.
049 * The Codec for {@link ENCODING_CDR_ENCAPS} v 1.0 - 1.2 is required by OMG.
050 * Vendors can implement additional Codec's, driven by alternative algorithms.
051 * </p>
052 * <p>
053 * The {@link ENCODING_CDR_ENCAPS} Codec, returned by the {@link CodecFactory},
054 * is a local object. It is not possible to get its stringified reference,
055 * to send it over CDR streams or invoke the methods remotely.
056 * </p>
057 * <p>
058 * Codec is obtained from {@link CodecFactory}. CodecFactory is returned by
059 * <code>ORB.resolve_initial_references("CodecFactory")</code>.
060 * </p>
061 * @specnote The ENCODING_CDR_ENCAPS Codec is local in both Suns
062 * (at least till 1.4 inclusive) an this implementation.
063 *
064 *
065 *
066 * @author Audrius Meskauskas, Lithuania (AudriusA@Bioinformatics.org)
067 */
068public interface Codec
069  extends CodecOperations, IDLEntity, org.omg.CORBA.Object
070{
071}