Task.java

/**
 * Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Wilfred Springer
 *
 * This file is part of ICal Combinator.
 *
 * ICal Combinator is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at
 * your option) any later version.
 *
 * ICal Combinator is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
 * General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
 * Preon; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is making a
 * combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms and conditions of the
 * GNU General Public License cover the whole combination.
 */
package nl.flotsam.tasks;

import java.util.concurrent.Future;

/**
 * The abstraction of something that can be started, while progress can be tracked with a {@link
 * java.util.concurrent.Future} returned.
 *
 * @param <T> The type of value returned from the {@link java.util.concurrent.Future}.
 */
public interface Task<T> {

    /**
     * Starts the execution. Note that you are not expected to call this method multiple times.
     *
     * @return The object to keep track of asynchronous execution of the task.
     */
    Future<T> start();

}