/*
  File: Comparator.java

  Originally written by Doug Lea and released into the public domain. 
  Thanks for the assistance and support of Sun Microsystems Labs, Agorics 
  Inc, Loral, and everyone contributing, testing, and using this code.

  History:
  Date     Who                What
  24Sep95  dl@cs.oswego.edu   Create from collections.java  working file

*/
  
package collections;

import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.NoSuchElementException;

/**
 *
 * Comparator is an interface for any class possessing an element
 * comparison method.
 * @author Doug Lea
 * @version 0.93
 *
 * <P> For an introduction to this package see <A HREF="index.html"> Overview </A>.
 *
**/

public interface Comparator extends java.io.Serializable {

/**
 * Compare two Objects with respect to ordering. Typical
 * implementations first cast their arguments to particular
 * types in order to perform comparison
 *
 * @param fst first argument
 * @param snd second argument
 * @return a negative number if fst is less than snd; a
 * positive number if fst is greater than snd; else 0
**/
  public int        compare(Object fst, Object snd); 
}