org.omegahat.Environment.IO
Interface ObjectDisplayFilter

All Known Subinterfaces:

TaskDisplayFilter

All Known Implementing Classes:

BasicObjectDisplay

public interface ObjectDisplayFilter

Interface intended to abstract the details of particular mark-up (for example, simple text, HTML/XML/SGML, LaTeX/TeX, binary, etc.) filters that display their output in different forms. The idea is that the different filter classes have the same methods as specified by this interface, but perform their tasks in different ways.

Method Summary

boolean	display(java.lang.Object obj) Display the given object, assuming it is the top-level object being displayed.
boolean	display(java.lang.Object obj, long level) Display the specified object in a suitable manner assuming that the object is nested within the top-level object being displayed at level level.
java.lang.String	toString(java.lang.Object obj) Convert the given object to a String.
java.io.Writer	toWriter(java.lang.Object obj) Not sure what I intended for this - write the object to the output stream using the toString() method, or convert the object to the writer and register it.
java.io.Writer	writer() Obtain the output stream to which the data can be written.

Method Detail

toString

public java.lang.String toString(java.lang.Object obj)

Convert the given object to a String. This is used by other objects when they take over the output of their contents and want to use the services of this filters formatting but change the overall layout of the components, not their content display. For example, we can display the contents of a table by converting each cell to a string and then managing the specification of the table. Alternatively, to embed an object within an HTML link to allow users to re-evaluate the associated expression, or bring up a plot or editor window, we would obtain the representation of the element using this method and then insert it into the link as part of the output stream.

toWriter

public java.io.Writer toWriter(java.lang.Object obj)

Not sure what I intended for this - write the object to the output stream using the toString() method, or convert the object to the writer and register it.

writer

public java.io.Writer writer()

Obtain the output stream to which the data can be written.

display

public boolean display(java.lang.Object obj)

Display the given object, assuming it is the top-level object being displayed.

See Also:

display(java.lang.Object, long)

display

public boolean display(java.lang.Object obj,
                       long level)

Display the specified object in a suitable manner assuming that the object is nested within the top-level object being displayed at level level.