001/**
002 * Copyright (C) 2007 - 2016, Jens Lehmann
003 *
004 * This file is part of DL-Learner.
005 *
006 * DL-Learner is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
007 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
008 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
009 * (at your option) any later version.
010 *
011 * DL-Learner is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
012 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
013 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
014 * GNU General Public License for more details.
015 *
016 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
017 * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
018 */
019package org.dllearner.core;
020
021/**
022 * 
023 * Interface for algorithms, which can be stopped and checked whether they are
024 * running. This allows learning algorithms to be run in separate threads or
025 * be terminated by the user.
026 * 
027 * @author Jens Lehmann
028 *
029 */
030public interface StoppableLearningAlgorithm extends LearningAlgorithm {
031
032        /**
033         * Stops the algorithm gracefully. A stopped algorithm cannot be resumed anymore.
034         * Use this method for cleanup and freeing memory.
035         */
036        void stop();
037        
038        /**
039         * Returns whether the learning algorithm is running. Implementation
040         * should use a boolean status variable in their implementations of
041         * the start and resume methods.
042         * @return True if the algorithm is running, false otherwise.
043         */
044        boolean isRunning();
045        
046}