Application: gvSIG desktop

/* gvSIG. Geographic Information System of the Valencian Government

 *

 * Copyright (C) 2007-2008 Infrastructures and Transports Department

 * of the Valencian Government (CIT)

 *

 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

 *

 * This program 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 General Public License for more details.

 *

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software

 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston,

 * MA  02110-1301, USA.

 *

 */

package org.gvsig.timesupport;

/**

 * <p>

 * An Instant represents a position in a time scale. In practice, 

 * an instant is an interval whose duration is less than the resolution

 * of the time scale.

 * </p>

 * <p>All the Instant subclasses have to be immutable and have to 

 * provide a Chronology as well. All standard Chronology classes are

 * also immutable.

 * </p>

 * <p>

 * A huge part of the documentation of this class has been retrieved

 * from the joda-time library.

 * </p>

 * 

 * @see http://joda-time.sourceforge.net

 * @see https://gvsig.org/web/projects/gvsig-desktop/docs/devel/org-gvsig-sensors/1-0.0/analysis-and-design/detailed-view/time-support/libraries/org-gvsig-timesupport-lib

 * 

 * @author gvSIG Team

 * @version $Id$

 * 

 */

public interface Instant extends Time{

    /**

     * Is this instant equal to the instant passed in comparing solely by millisecond. 

     * @param instant

     *          an instant to check against, null means now 

     * @return

     *          <code>true</code> if the instant is equal to the instant passed in

     */

    public boolean isEqual(Instant instant);

    /**

     * Is this instant after the instant passed in comparing solely by millisecond. 

     * @param instant

     *          an instant to check against, null means now 

     * @return

     *          <code>true</code> if the instant is after the instant passed in

     */

    public boolean isAfter(Instant instant);

    /**

     * Is this instant before the instant passed in comparing solely by millisecond. 

     * @param instant

     *          an instant to check against, null means now 

     * @return

     *          <code>true</code> if the instant is before the instant passed in

     */

    public boolean isBefore(Instant instant);

}