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package javax.print;

import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * Interface MultiDoc specifies the interface for an object that supplies more
 * than one piece of print data for a Print Job. "Doc" is a short,
 * easy-to-pronounce term that means "a piece of print data," and a "multidoc"
 * is a group of several docs. The client passes to the Print Job an object
 * that implements interface MultiDoc, and the Print Job calls methods on
 * that object to obtain the print data.
 * <P>
 * Interface MultiDoc provides an abstraction similar to a "linked list" of
 * docs. A multidoc object is like a node in the linked list, containing the
 * current doc in the list and a pointer to the next node (multidoc) in the
 * list. The Print Job can call the multidoc's {@link #getDoc()
 * getDoc()} method to get the current doc. When it's ready to go
 * on to the next doc, the Print Job can call the multidoc's {@link #next()
 * next()} method to get the next multidoc, which contains the
 * next doc. So Print Job code for accessing a multidoc might look like this:
 * <PRE>
 * void processMultiDoc(MultiDoc theMultiDoc) {
 *
 * MultiDoc current = theMultiDoc;

 * while (current != null) {
 * processDoc (current.getDoc());
 * current = current.next();
 * }
 * }
 * </PRE>
 * <P>
 * Of course, interface MultiDoc can be implemented in any way that fulfills
 * the contract; it doesn't have to use a linked list in the implementation.
 * <P>
 * To get all the print data for a multidoc print job, a Print Service
 * proxy could use either of two patterns:
 * <OL TYPE=1>
 * <LI>
 * The <B>interleaved</B> pattern: Get the doc from the current multidoc. Get
 * the print data representation object from the current doc. Get all the print
 * data from the print data representation object. Get the next multidoc from
 * the current multidoc, and repeat until there are no more. (The code example
 * above uses the interleaved pattern.)
 * <P>
 * <LI>
 * The <B>all-at-once</B> pattern: Get the doc from the current multidoc, and
 * save the doc in a list. Get the next multidoc from the current multidoc, and
 * repeat until there are no more. Then iterate over the list of saved docs. Get
 * the print data representation object from the current doc. Get all the print
 * data from the print data representation object. Go to the next doc in the
 * list, and repeat until there are no more.
 * </OL>
 * Now, consider a printing client that is generating print data on the fly and
 * does not have the resources to store more than one piece of print data at a
 * time. If the print service proxy used the all-at-once pattern to get the
 * print data, it would pose a problem for such a client; the client would have
 * to keep all the docs' print data around until the print service proxy comes
 * back and asks for them, which the client is not able to do. To work with such
 * a client, the print service proxy must use the interleaved pattern.
 * <P>
 * To address this problem, and to simplify the design of clients providing
* multiple docs to a Print Job, every Print Service proxy that supports
 * multidoc print jobs is required to access a MultiDoc object using the
 * interleaved pattern. That is, given a MultiDoc object, the print service
 * proxy will call {@link #getDoc() getDoc()} one or more times
 * until it successfully obtains the current Doc object. The print service proxy
 * will then obtain the current doc's print data, not proceeding until all the
 * print data is obtained or an unrecoverable error occurs. If it is able to
 * continue, the print service proxy will then call {@link #next()
 * next()} one or more times until it successfully obtains either
 * the next MultiDoc object or an indication that there are no more. An
 * implementation of interface MultiDoc can assume the print service proxy will
 * follow this interleaved pattern; for any other pattern of usage, the MultiDoc
 * implementation's behavior is unspecified.
 * <P>
 * There is no restriction on the number of client threads that may be
 * simultaneously accessing the same multidoc. Therefore, all implementations of
 * interface MultiDoc must be designed to be multiple thread safe. In fact, a
 * client thread could be adding docs to the end of the (conceptual) list while
 * a Print Job thread is simultaneously obtaining docs from the beginning of the
 * list; provided the multidoc object synchronizes the threads properly, the two
 * threads will not interfere with each other
 */

public interface MultiDoc {


 /**
 * Obtain the current doc object.
 *
 * @return Current doc object.
 *
 * @exception IOException
 * Thrown if a error occurred reading the document.
 */
 public Doc getDoc() throws IOException;

 /**
 * Go to the multidoc object that contains the next doc object in the
 * sequence of doc objects.
 *
 * @return Multidoc object containing the next doc object, or null if
 * there are no further doc objects.
 *
 * @exception IOException
 * Thrown if an error occurred locating the next document
 */
 public MultiDoc next() throws IOException;

}