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package org.scijava;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * An object which can express itself by some unique string.
 * <p>
 * Two objects that produce the same identifier string can be considered
 * equivalent by some metric. The main use case for these identifiers is as a
 * weak form of long-term serialization:
 * </p>
 * <ol>
 * <li>An object's identifier is saved to long-term storage such as disk.</li>
 * <li>Later, in a new JVM, the identifier is retrieved from disk.</li>
 * <li>An existing index of objects is queried to find the object (if any) whose
 * identifier matches the retrieved one.</li>
 * </ol>
 * <p>
 * In this way, objects themselves do not need to be {@link Serializable}, nor
 * do multiple potentially equivalent objects need to be synthesized and then
 * compared using {@link Object#equals}.
 * </p>
 * 
 * @author Curtis Rueden
 */
public interface Identifiable {

	/** Gets a string intended to function as an identifier for the object. */
	String getIdentifier();

}
