Parser Schemas– Easy and Powerful parsing of XML-based languages

/***********************************************************************\
 * Comnicate.CodeDom.Xml.ParserSchemas                                 *
 * Parses xml-based languages according to a user defined schema.      *
 * Copyright � 2005 Tomas Deml (as Comnicate!)                         *
 *                  tomasdeml@msn.com                                  *
 *                                                                     *
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or       *
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public          *
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either        *
 * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.  *
 *                                                                     *
 * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,     *
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of      *
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU   *
 * Lesser General Public License for more details.                     *
\***********************************************************************/

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Comnicate.CodeDom.Xml.ParserSchemas.Rules.Evaluated;

namespace Comnicate.CodeDom.Xml.ParserSchemas.Rules
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Defines methods for the evaluated parental rule supporting the linked rules.
    /// </summary>
    internal interface ILinkResolver
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an evaluated rule linked to this rule before the evaluation.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="rule">Linked rule.</param>
        /// <returns>Evaluated rule.</returns>
        // <remarks>The full name of a rule is formed like [XmlNamespace:][@|?]NodeName where XmlNamespace is the node namespace, @ or ? when the node is attribute or PI respectively and NodeName is the node name.</remarks>
        EvaluatedRule GetEvaluatedLinkedRule(Rule rule);

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an evaluated rule linked to this rule before the evaluation. The rule is casted to an instance of the <see cref="EvaluatedParentalRule"/>.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="rule">Linked rule.</param>
        /// <returns>Evaluated parental rule.</returns>
        EvaluatedParentalRule GetEvaluatedParentalLinkedRule(Rule rule);

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an evaluated rule linked to this rule before the evaluation. The rule is casted to an instance of the <paramref name="T"/> type.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="rule">Linked rule.</param>
        /// <typeparam name="T">Type to cast the rule to.</typeparam>
        /// <returns>Casted evaluated rule.</returns>
        T GetEvaluatedLinkedRuleAs<T>(Rule rule) where T : EvaluatedRule;
    }
}