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The James core module is part of the James framework for optimization using local search metaheuristics in Java. The core contains general components to model problems, objectives and constraints, as well as generic algorithms to solve the problems. Moreover, the core provides implementations of specific utilities for subset selection.

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//  Copyright 2014 Herman De Beukelaer
//
//  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.

package org.jamesframework.core.problems.objectives;

import org.jamesframework.core.problems.solutions.Solution;

/**
 * Interface of a general objective used to evaluate solutions, using some underlying data.
 * An objective can be either maximizing or minimizing; in the former case increasing scores
 * indicate improvement, while in the latter case decreasing scores indicate improvement.
 * 
 * @author Herman De Beukelaer
 * @param  solution type to be evaluated, required to extend {@link Solution}
 * @param  underlying data type
 */
public interface Objective {
    
    /**
     * Evaluates a given solution, based on some underlying data. Depending on whether the objective
     * is maximizing (versus minimizing), better solutions have higher (respectively lower) scores.
     * 
     * @param solution solution to evaluate
     * @param data underlying data which is used for evaluation
     * @return evaluation of the given solution
     */
    public double evaluate(SolutionType solution, DataType data);
    
    /**
     * Check whether the objective is minimizing.
     * 
     * @return true if the objective is minimizing
     */
    public boolean isMinimizing();

}