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/*
 Copyright (c) 2011, The Staccato-Commons Team

 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation; version 3 of the License.

 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 Lesser General Public License for more details.
 */
package net.sf.staccatocommons.collections.stream;

import java.util.NoSuchElementException;

import net.sf.staccatocommons.collections.restrictions.Projection;
import net.sf.staccatocommons.defs.Thunk;
import net.sf.staccatocommons.lang.tuple.Pair;
import net.sf.staccatocommons.restrictions.check.NonNull;

/**
 * {@link Stream} interface for splitting an Stream into head - its
 * first element, aka first or car - and tail - an
 * Stream with the rest of the elements, aka rest or
 * cdr.
 * 
 * Constructing is the oposite of deconstructing. Such operations can be found
 * in {@link Cons}
 * 
 * @author flbulgarelli
 */
public interface Deconstructable {

  /**
   * Answers this stream split into head and tail.
   * 
   * This method is preferred over {@link #head()} and {@link #tail()}, as it
   * will work as expected even on non repeatable iteration streams.
   * 
   * @return a pair containing the head and the tail of this stream. The tail is
   *         {@link NonNull} and a {@link Projection}, but it is always
   *         non-repeatable.
   * @throws NoSuchElementException
   *           if stream is empty
   */
  @NonNull
  Pair> decons();

  /**
   * Answers this non-empty stream split into a head thunk and tail.
   * 
   * This method is preferred over {@link #decons()} when the head value of the
   * {@link Stream} is potentially irrelevant, as this methods grants to suceeds
   * even in those cases where {@link #head()} fails.
   * 
   * @return a pair containing a thunk that will provide the head, and the tail
   *         of this stream. The tail is {@link NonNull} and a
   *         {@link Projection}, but it is always non-repeatable.
   * @throws NoSuchElementException
   *           if stream is empty
   */
  @NonNull
  Pair, Stream> delayedDecons();

  /**
   * Answers the head of the {@link Stream}, which is the first element of the
   * stream.
   * 
   * @return {@link Stream#first()}
   * @throws NoSuchElementException
   *           if stream is empty
   */
  A head();

  /**
   * Answers the tail of the {@link Stream}
   * 
   * @return an {@link Stream} that retrieves all its elements, except of the
   *         first one
   * @throws NoSuchElementException
   *           if stream is empty
   */
  @Projection
  Stream tail();

}