    001    /*
    002     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
    003     * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
    004     * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
    005     * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
    006     * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
    007     * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
    008     *
    009     *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
    010     *
    011     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
    012     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
    013     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
    014     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
    015     * limitations under the License.
    016     */
    017    package org.apache.commons.math;
    018
    019
    020    /**
    021     * Interface representing <a href="http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Field.html">field</a> elements.
    022     * @param <T> the type of the field elements
    023     * @see Field
    024     * @version $Revision: 811685 $ $Date: 2009-09-05 19:36:48 +0200 (sam. 05 sept. 2009) $
    025     * @since 2.0
    026     */
    027    public interface FieldElement<T> {
    028
    029        /** Compute this + a.
    030         * @param a element to add
    031         * @return a new element representing this + a
    032         */
    033        T add(T a);
    034
    035        /** Compute this - a.
    036         * @param a element to subtract
    037         * @return a new element representing this - a
    038         */
    039        T subtract(T a);
    040
    041        /** Compute this &times; a.
    042         * @param a element to multiply
    043         * @return a new element representing this &times; a
    044         */
    045        T multiply(T a);
    046
    047        /** Compute this &divide; a.
    048         * @param a element to add
    049         * @return a new element representing this &divide; a
    050         * @exception ArithmeticException if a is the zero of the
    051         * additive operation (i.e. additive identity)
    052         */
    053        T divide(T a) throws ArithmeticException;
    054
    055        /** Get the {@link Field} to which the instance belongs.
    056         * @return {@link Field} to which the instance belongs
    057         */
    058        Field<T> getField();
    059
    060    }