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package com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.xni.grammars;

A generic grammar for use in validating XML documents. The Grammar
object stores the validation information in a compiled form. Specific
subclasses extend this class and "populate" the grammar by compiling
the specific syntax (DTD, Schema, etc) into the data structures used
by this object.

Note: The Grammar object is not useful as a generic
grammar access or query object. In other words, you cannot round-trip
specific grammar syntaxes with the compiled grammar information in
the Grammar object. You can create equivalent validation
rules in your choice of grammar syntax but there is no guarantee that
the input and output will be the same.
 Right now, this class is largely a shell; eventually,
it will be enriched by having more expressive methods added. 
will be moved from dtd.Grammar here.
Author:
Jeffrey Rodriguez, IBM, Eric Ye, IBM, Andy Clark, IBM, Neil Graham, IBM/**
 * A generic grammar for use in validating XML documents. The Grammar
 * object stores the validation information in a compiled form. Specific
 * subclasses extend this class and "populate" the grammar by compiling
 * the specific syntax (DTD, Schema, etc) into the data structures used
 * by this object.
 * <p>
 * <strong>Note:</strong> The Grammar object is not useful as a generic
 * grammar access or query object. In other words, you cannot round-trip
 * specific grammar syntaxes with the compiled grammar information in
 * the Grammar object. You <em>can</em> create equivalent validation
 * rules in your choice of grammar syntax but there is no guarantee that
 * the input and output will be the same.
 *
 * <p> Right now, this class is largely a shell; eventually,
 * it will be enriched by having more expressive methods added. </p>
 * will be moved from dtd.Grammar here.
 *
 * @author Jeffrey Rodriguez, IBM
 * @author Eric Ye, IBM
 * @author Andy Clark, IBM
 * @author Neil Graham, IBM
 *
 */

public interface Grammar {

    
get the XMLGrammarDescription associated with this
object
/**
     * get the <code>XMLGrammarDescription</code> associated with this
     * object
     */
    public XMLGrammarDescription getGrammarDescription ();
} // interface Grammar