001/**
002 * Copyright 2003-2004 The Apache Software Foundation
003 * Copyright 2005 Stephen McConnell
004 *
005 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
006 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
007 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
008 *
009 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010 *
011 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015 * limitations under the License.
016 */
017package net.dpml.cli;
018
019import java.util.ListIterator;
020
021/**
022 * An Option that can have an argument and/or group of child Options in the form 
023 * "-f <arg> [-a|-b|-c]".
024 *
025 * @author <a href="@PUBLISHER-URL@">@PUBLISHER-NAME@</a>
026 * @version @PROJECT-VERSION@
027 */
028public interface Parent extends Option
029{
030
031    /**
032     * Processes the parent part of the Option.  The combination of parent,
033     * argument and children is handled by the process method.
034     * @see Option#process(WriteableCommandLine, ListIterator)
035     * 
036     * @param commandLine the CommandLine to write results to
037     * @param args a ListIterator over argument strings positioned at the next
038     *             argument to process
039     * @throws OptionException if an error occurs while processing
040     */
041    void processParent(
042      WriteableCommandLine commandLine, ListIterator args )
043      throws OptionException;
044}