gov.nasa.arc.brahms.vm.api.common
Interface IStatement

All Known Subinterfaces:

IBelief, IFact

public interface IStatement

IStatement is a wrapper interface for a statement that defines a (believed) state in the world. The statement specifies when the (believed) state was asserted (time created) and what that state is. The state is defined by a tuple, either an attribute based tuple specifying the object/attribute/value tuple or a relation based tuple specifying the object/relation/object tuple. The statement has no creation time specified if it has not been asserted in the world state or belief set of an agent or object.

Version:

6 April 2001

Author:

Ron van Hoof

See Also:

IBelief, IFact

Method Summary

long	getTimeCreated() Returns the time at which the statement was asserted in the world state or belief set of an agent or object.
ITuple	getTuple() Returns the ITuple defining the actual state represented by this statement.

Method Detail

getTimeCreated

long getTimeCreated()
                    throws ExternalException

Returns the time at which the statement was asserted in the world state or belief set of an agent or object. The time is not specified if the statement has not yet been asserted.

Returns:

long the time at which the statement was asserted.

Throws:

ExternalException - if the statement was not yet asserted.

getTuple

ITuple getTuple()
                throws ExternalException

Returns the ITuple defining the actual state represented by this statement. The ITuple is either an IAttributeTuple or IRelationTuple.

Returns:

ITuple the tuple specifying the state

Throws:

ExternalException - if an internal error occurs.