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SciJava Common is a shared library for SciJava software. It provides a plugin framework, with an extensible mechanism for service discovery, backed by its own annotation processor, so that plugins can be loaded dynamically. It is used by downstream projects in the SciJava ecosystem, such as ImageJ and SCIFIO.
/*
* #%L
* SciJava Common shared library for SciJava software.
* %%
* Copyright (C) 2009 - 2014 Board of Regents of the University of
* Wisconsin-Madison, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Max Planck
* Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
* %%
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
*
* 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
* this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
* this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
* and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
* AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
* IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
* ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
* LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
* CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
* SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
* INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
* CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
* ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
* POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
* #L%
*/
package org.scijava;
import java.io.Serializable;
/**
* An object which can express itself by some unique string.
*
* Two objects that produce the same identifier string can be considered
* equivalent by some metric. The main use case for these identifiers is as a
* weak form of long-term serialization:
*
*
* - An object's identifier is saved to long-term storage such as disk.
* - Later, in a new JVM, the identifier is retrieved from disk.
* - An existing index of objects is queried to find the object (if any) whose
* identifier matches the retrieved one.
*
*
* In this way, objects themselves do not need to be {@link Serializable}, nor
* do multiple potentially equivalent objects need to be synthesized and then
* compared using {@link #equals}.
*
*
* @author Curtis Rueden
*/
public interface Identifiable {
/** Gets a string intended to function as an identifier for the object. */
String getIdentifier();
}