/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2006 IBM Corporation and others.
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 *
 * Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 * Port to the D programming language:
 *     Frank Benoit <benoit@tionex.de>
 *******************************************************************************/
module dwtx.jface.text.ISynchronizable;

import dwt.dwthelper.utils;

/**
 * Interface for text related objects which may be used in the multi-threaded
 * context and thus must provide a way to prevent concurrent access and
 * manipulation.
 * <p>
 * In order to reduce the probability of dead locks clients should synchronize
 * their access to these objects by using the provided lock object rather than
 * the object itself.</p>
 * <p>
 * Managing objects can use the <code>setLockObject</code> method in order to
 * synchronize whole sets of objects.</p>
 *
 * @since 3.0
 */
public interface ISynchronizable {

    /**
     * Sets the lock object for this object. If the lock object is not
     * <code>null</code> subsequent calls to specified methods of this object
     * are synchronized on this lock object. Which methods are synchronized is
     * specified by the implementer.
     * <p>
     * <em>You should not override an existing lock object unless you own
     * that lock object yourself. Use the existing lock object instead.</em>
     * </p>
     *
     * @param lockObject the lock object. May be <code>null</code>.
     */
    void setLockObject(Object lockObject);

    /**
     * Returns the lock object or <code>null</code> if there is none. Clients
     * should use the lock object in order to synchronize concurrent access to
     * the implementer.
     *
     * @return the lock object or <code>null</code>
     */
    Object getLockObject();
}