/* NaturalLanguageSyntax.java -- 
   Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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package gnu.javax.print.ipp.attribute;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * <code>NaturalLanguageSyntax</code> is the abstract base class of all 
 * attribute classes which provide a natural language (US-ASCII) 
 * string as value.
 *
 * @author Wolfgang Baer (WBaer@gmx.de)
 */
public abstract class NaturalLanguageSyntax 
  implements Cloneable, Serializable
{
  private final String value;

  /**
   * Creates a <code>NaturalLanguageSyntax</code> object with the given value
   * and locale.
   *
   * @param value the value for this syntax
   *
   * @exception NullPointerException if value is null
   */
  protected NaturalLanguageSyntax(String value)
  {
    if (value == null)
      throw new NullPointerException("value may not be null");
    
    this.value = value;
  }

  /**
   * Returns the value of this syntax object.
   *
   * @return The value.
   */
  public String getValue()
  {
    return value;
  }

  /**
   * Returns the hashcode for this object.
   *
   * @return The hashcode.
   */
  public int hashCode()
  {
    return value.hashCode();
  }

  /**
   * Tests if the given object is equal to this object.
   *
   * @param obj the object to test
   *
   * @return true if both objects are equal, false otherwise.
   */
  public boolean equals(Object obj)
  {
    if (! (obj instanceof NaturalLanguageSyntax))
      return false;

    NaturalLanguageSyntax tmp = (NaturalLanguageSyntax) obj;    
    return value.equals(tmp.getValue());
  }

  /**
   * Returns a string representing the object. The returned
   * string is the underlying text value of this object.
   * 
   * @return The string representation.
   */
  public String toString()
  {
    return getValue();
  }
}