/*

   Copyright 2001  The Apache Software Foundation 

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

 */
package org.apache.batik.svggen;

import java.util.List;

import org.apache.batik.ext.awt.g2d.GraphicContext;

/**
 * Defines the interface for classes that are able to convert
 * part or all of a GraphicContext.
 *
 * @author <a href="mailto:vincent.hardy@eng.sun.com">Vincent Hardy</a>
 * @version $Id: SVGConverter.java,v 1.6 2004/08/18 07:14:59 vhardy Exp $
 * @see           org.apache.batik.ext.awt.g2d.GraphicContext
 */
public interface SVGConverter extends SVGSyntax{
    /**
     * Converts part or all of the input GraphicContext into
     * a set of attribute/value pairs and related definitions
     *
     * @param gc GraphicContext to be converted
     * @return descriptor of the attributes required to represent
     *         some or all of the GraphicContext state, along
     *         with the related definitions
     * @see org.apache.batik.svggen.SVGDescriptor
     */
    public SVGDescriptor toSVG(GraphicContext gc);

    /**
     * @return set of definitions referenced by the attribute
     *         values created by the implementation since its
     *         creation. The return value should never be null.
     *         If no definition is needed, an empty set should be
     *         returned.
     */
    public List getDefinitionSet();
}
