package com.swabunga.spell.engine;

/**
 * An interface for all Transformators - which take a dictionary word and converts into its
 * phonetic hash. These phonetic hashs are useful for determining what other words are
 * similiar to it, and then list those words as suggestsions.
 *
 * @author Robert Gustavsson (robert@lindesign.se)
 */
public interface Transformator {

  /**
   * Take the given word, and return the best phonetic hash for it.
   */
  public String transform(String word);

  /**
   * gets the list of characters that should be swapped in to the misspelled word
   * in order to try to find more suggestions.
   * In general, this list represents all of the unique phonetic characters
   * for this Tranformator.
   * 

   * The replace list is used in the getSuggestions method.
   * All of the letters in the misspelled word are replaced with the characters from
   * this list to try and generate more suggestions, which implies l*n tries,
   * if l is the size of the string, and n is the size of this list.
   * 

   * In addition to that, each of these letters is added to the mispelled word.
   * 

   * @return char[] misspelled words should try replacing with these characters to get more suggestions
   */
  public char[] getReplaceList();
}