1 /*
2 File: Executor.java
3
4 Originally written by Doug Lea and released into the public domain.
5 This may be used for any purposes whatsoever without acknowledgment.
6 Thanks for the assistance and support of Sun Microsystems Labs,
7 and everyone contributing, testing, and using this code.
8
9 History:
10 Date Who What
11 19Jun1998 dl Create public version
12 */
13
14 package org.dbunit.util.concurrent;
15
16 /**
17 * Interface for objects that execute Runnables,
18 * as well as various objects that can be wrapped
19 * as Runnables.
20 * The main reason to use Executor throughout a program or
21 * subsystem is to provide flexibility: You can easily
22 * change from using thread-per-task to using pools or
23 * queuing, without needing to change most of your code that
24 * generates tasks.
25 * <p>
26 * The general intent is that execution be asynchronous,
27 * or at least independent of the caller. For example,
28 * one of the simplest implementations of <code>execute</code>
29 * (as performed in ThreadedExecutor)
30 * is <code>new Thread(command).start();</code>.
31 * However, this interface allows implementations that instead
32 * employ queueing or pooling, or perform additional
33 * bookkeeping.
34 * <p>
35 *
36 * <p>[<a href="http://gee.cs.oswego.edu/dl/classes/EDU/oswego/cs/dl/util/concurrent/intro.html"> Introduction to this package. </a>]
37 *
38 * @author Doug Lea
39 * @author Last changed by: $Author$
40 * @version $Revision$ $Date$
41 * @since ? (pre 2.1)
42 */
43 public interface Executor {
44 /**
45 * Execute the given command. This method is guaranteed
46 * only to arrange for execution, that may actually
47 * occur sometime later; for example in a new
48 * thread. However, in fully generic use, callers
49 * should be prepared for execution to occur in
50 * any fashion at all, including immediate direct
51 * execution.
52 * <p>
53 * The method is defined not to throw
54 * any checked exceptions during execution of the command. Generally,
55 * any problems encountered will be asynchronous and
56 * so must be dealt with via callbacks or error handler
57 * objects. If necessary, any context-dependent
58 * catastrophic errors encountered during
59 * actions that arrange for execution could be accompanied
60 * by throwing context-dependent unchecked exceptions.
61 * <p>
62 * However, the method does throw InterruptedException:
63 * It will fail to arrange for execution
64 * if the current thread is currently interrupted.
65 * Further, the general contract of the method is to avoid,
66 * suppress, or abort execution if interruption is detected
67 * in any controllable context surrounding execution.
68 **/
69 public void execute(Runnable command) throws InterruptedException;
70
71 }