001    /*
002     * @(#)ComparatorInterface   0.3.0   2001/04/21
003     * 
004     * Copyright (c) 2001 Marco Schmidt <marcoschmidt@users.sourceforge.net>
005     * All rights reserved.
006     */
007    
008    package net.sourceforge.jiu.util;
009    
010    /**
011     * To be able to do sorting in Java 1.1 as defined in java.util.Arrays (which
012     * is only available in Java 1.2 and higher), we offer a java.util.Comparator 
013     * clone under a different name: ComparatorInterface.
014     * Sorting will be provided by the {@link Sort} class of this package.
015     */
016    public interface ComparatorInterface
017    {
018            /**
019             * Compares the two argument objects and returns their relation.
020             * Returns 
021             * <ul>
022             * <li>a value < 0 if <code>o1</code> is smaller than <code>o2</code>,</li>
023             * <li>0 if <code>o1</code> is equal to <code>o2</code> and</li>
024             * <li>a value > 0 if <code>o1</code> is greater than <code>o2</code>.</li>
025             * </ul>
026             */
027            int compare(Object o1, Object o2);
028    }