/*
 * Copyright 1998-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code 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
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
 * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
 * have any questions.
 */

package com.sun.jdi;

/**
 * A string object from the target VM.
 * A StringReference is an {@link ObjectReference} with additional
 * access to string-specific information from the target VM.
 *
 * @author Robert Field
 * @author Gordon Hirsch
 * @author James McIlree
 * @since  1.3
 */
public interface StringReference extends ObjectReference
{
    /**
     * Returns the StringReference as a String. The returned string
     * is the equivalent of the mirrored string, but is an entity in the
     * client VM and can be manipulated like any other string.
     *
     * @return the string value.
     */
    String value();
}