/* URLStreamHandlerFactory.java -- Maps protocols to URLStreamHandlers
   Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

GNU Classpath 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.
 
GNU Classpath 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 GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307 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.

As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
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this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
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package java.net;

/**
 * Written using on-line Java Platform 1.2 API Specification, as well
 * as "The Java Class Libraries", 2nd edition (Addison-Wesley, 1998).
 * Status:  Believed complete and correct.
 */

/**
 * This interface contains one method which maps the protocol portion of
 * a URL (eg, "http" in "http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/") to a 
 * <code>URLStreamHandler</code> object.
 *
 * @author Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com)
 * @author Warren Levy <warrenl@cygnus.com>
 */
public interface URLStreamHandlerFactory
{
  /**
    * This method maps the protocol portion of a URL to a 
    * <code>URLStreamHandler</code> object.
    *
    * @param protocol The protocol name to map ("http", "ftp", etc).
    *
    * @return The <code>URLStreamHandler</code> for the specified protocol
    */
  public URLStreamHandler createURLStreamHandler(String protocol);

} // interface URLStreamHandlerFactory