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Jenetics - Java Genetic Algorithm Library
There is a newer version: 3.6.0
/*
 * Java Genetic Algorithm Library (jenetics-3.1.0).
 * Copyright (c) 2007-2015 Franz Wilhelmstötter
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 *
 * Author:
 *    Franz Wilhelmstötter ([email protected])
 */
package org.jenetics;

import org.jenetics.util.Factory;
import org.jenetics.util.ISeq;
import org.jenetics.util.Verifiable;

/**
 * A chromosome consists of one or more genes. It also provides a factory
 * method for creating new, random chromosome instances of the same type and the
 * same constraint.
 * 
 * API Note: 
 * Implementations of the {@code Chromosome} interface must be immutable
 * and guarantee an efficient random access ({@code O(1)}) to the genes.
 *
 * @see Wikipdida: Chromosome
 *
 * @author Franz Wilhelmstötter
 * @since 1.0
 * @version 3.1
 */
public interface Chromosome>
	extends
		Verifiable,
		Iterable,
		Factory>
{
	/**
	 * A factory method which creates a new {@link Chromosome} of specific type
	 * and the given {@code genes}.
	 *
	 * @param genes the genes of the new chromosome. The given genes array is
	 *         not copied.
	 * @return A new {@link Chromosome} of the same type with the given genes.
	 * @throws NullPointerException if the given {@code gene}s are {@code null}.
	 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the length of the given gene sequence
	 *        is smaller than one.
	 */
	public Chromosome newInstance(final ISeq genes);

	/**
	 * Return the first gene of this chromosome. Each chromosome must contain
	 * at least one gene.
	 *
	 * @return the first gene of this chromosome.
	 */
	public default G getGene() {
		return getGene(0);
	}

	/**
	 * Return the gene on the specified index.
	 *
	 * @param index The gene index.
	 * @return the wanted gene.
	 * @throws IndexOutOfBoundsException if the index is out of range
	 *          (index < 1 || index >= length()).
	 */
	public G getGene(final int index);

	/**
	 * Returns the length of the Chromosome. The minimal length of a
	 * chromosome is one.
	 *
	 * @return Length of the Chromosome
	 */
	public int length();

	/**
	 * Return an unmodifiable sequence of the genes of this chromosome.
	 *
	 * @return an immutable gene sequence.
	 */
	public ISeq toSeq();

}